Izzy Green A Ghost Story
by RandomFavoriteCouples
Summary: This is based on Jade Green by Phyllis Reynolds Taylor. 15 year old orphaned Courtney moves in with her Uncle Trent in South Carolina. She is told that she cannot bring anything green but she does. 16 yrs old or higher DxC
1. Chapter 1

Izzy Green

Summary: This is based on **Jade Green** by Phyllis Reynolds Taylor. 15 year old orphaned Courtney moves in with her Uncle Trent in South Carolina. She is told that she can live there but she cannot bring anything that is green. She brings a silk green frame with a picture of her mother in the house because she couldn't part with it.

I DO NOT OWN TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND. JADE GREEN IS COPYRIGHTED BY SCHOLASTIC.

Characters

Driver-Noah

Judith Sparrow-Courtney

Violet Marrison- LeShawna

Jade Green-Izzy

Mrs. Hastings-Gwen

Helene Harper-Katie

Zeke Carey-Duncan

Uncle Geoffrey-Trent

Cousin Charles-Justin


	2. Chapter 2

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

When the carriage turned onto Stone Street, it was as through the house was watching. There were two gables with a window in each, the curtains were slightly parted like cats' eyes, not quite closed, spying.

Earlier that day I had arrived by train in Charleston, and had at once been restless to move about after the tiresome journey from Ohio. Indeed, I felt constrained in my long grey skirt and jacket, a bonnet of grey and blue on my head. Not to mention I was hungry too. For the first few hours of my tiresome journey I ate all my bread and cheese and gave my candy to a kid who was screaming about the donutcaptors are coming or something like that (I wonder who that is) that I had packed. Even more then food, I longed for someone to talk to. As the kid kept talking about food which made me more hungry so I stopped talking to him.I asked the driver who introduced himself as Noah if I could sit up front with him rather then alone in the carriage. There was still a long way to go before I got to Whispers.

"An odd name for a town," I said to Noah who was wearing blue shorts, a white undershirt and a red vest.

"The people there say that it is called that becasue of the trees, Miss Sparrow. Appartently when the wind blows through them they make the sound of old ladies whispering. Yeah right, I heard the trees and they just sound like the wind blowing through them not some old ladies whispering. Move it Nancy!" The horse, Nancy, began the two-hour journey to the place where I would spend the rest of my life, if God is willing too.

I was much thankful when Noah pulled a cinnamon bun from his pocket and I accepted it then he said, "Your lucky my friend isn't here."

"Why is that?"

"He would've pulled that out from his pants."

I just blinked at him not saying anything so he asked, "You're coming to help the cook right?"

"Yes sir," I answered, "and it's a good thing they'd have me, for not one other relative would take me in."

"Your orphaned, then?"

I nodded, "My father died about four years ago in September and my mother died last month." I refused to tell him that my mother gave birth to a stillborn daughter which casued her much greive, which also made me feel helpless, becasue she died in a madhouse, "But now," I said brightly hoping that we would get off the subject about my parents, "I will live in South Carolina and be cousin and housekeeper both. Tell me about the house please."

"Ah Miss," he said, "That old place is ..." he paused

"Haunted?" I teased

"It could use some cheer actually and your uncle will be pleased to have you," he said quickly.

:I highly doubt that. He wouldn't agree right away to take me in, then the only reason they did was becasue no one would."

The dirver gave me his kind smile, "He'll take one look at you and be glad you came. He won't shout with joy. Could break his back."

"What about my cousin? I finally be able to talk to someone in my family that is about my age."

"Why don't you keep in touch with your family? He's old enough to be your father. Near forty i suspect."

"Forty! Surely that isn't possible," i cried in dismay

"Sure it possible. He doesn't love with his father, niether. He has some rooms in town I believe. No birds of a feather, them two. Some days I don't think that they are related.

I slumped back agaisnt the seat, too disappointed to say more. How could it be that I was fifteen and Justin so old? True, I had never really lay eyes on him execpt when I was small but I couldn't remeber, living far from the home of my southern relatives, but the more I thought about it, I realized that Uncle Trent was twelve years older then my father and while he and his wife had their child early, my parents had me late.

"Well, never mind," I said breaking the silence and finsish the cinnamon bun, "I shall try my best to make them glad I have come and to do my best."

"Of course you will," we passed the rest of the time talking about climate which I find is very different then Ohio. The storms off the Carolina coast were legendary, he told me but the cook Gwen Hastings would make up for it, she has a heart that is warm as an oven and big as the moon.

"Do you play the piano, Courtney? They have a grand piano in the parlor."

I was tired of him calling me Miss or Miss Sparrow so I told him to call me Courtney, "A little." I had eight years of schooling, which was quite enough, it was decided, for a girl of my station, through less than some of the boys I knew had acquired. But I could play the piano well enough to amuse myself, and at times, amuze other people as well.

There was a carriage robe under the seat, and I wrapped it about me as we rode. I had hoped, when the train first arrived in Charleston, to find flowers near bloom but had been deeply disappointed that spring had not yet come to this part of the country, either. The tips of the trees were a soft pink, but the land along the way to Whispers had a chilled gray look.

It was when we turned up Stone Street that I felt the first foreboding. The bare branches of the trees that lined our path seemed like slender fingers reaching out to ensure me and the trees themseles didn't whisper so much as scape and scratch as the carriage went by.

Then at the end of the street, the house-the large brown house with the two eyes-made me suddenly clucth at the driver's arm as to say _Turn around! Turn around!_

"It's all right Courtney, it's a big dark house, but Gwen Hastings us a good sort of person. She'll look out for you and did you play sports in Ohio? Your grip is going to make me lose my arm."

The long tiresome journey from Ohio had me unnerved, I decided, for here I had a home, at least, and a forty-year-old cousin was better than no cousin at all. I had been told that Uncle Trent didn't speak much so I had better not had my hopes high for encourgement or conservation there, but I resolved to be cheerful and obedient none the less.

In Ohio I had always follow the rules and never broken one well I broke the first one coming here, the messanger told me that there was a condition to living in my uncle's house and that is that I shouldn't bring the color green in. I could bring along whatever I liked expect for the color green. Nothing can be green.

That was a strange demand, I'd thought. I had broken that rule becasue, before my mother passed away she gave me a green silk picture frame that held a picture of my mother and me. I would rather be dead then to leave that behind. How could I? How could I already disobey a man who I haven't meant and is the only one who is willing to give me shelter. That was scaring me right now but I wanted that picture and frame to stay with me. It was hiding beneath my summer clothing and it would rest there as we neared my uncle's house.

Thus, obedient I usually am to all of his wishes, expect for one, I came out from the carriage and eyed my new home and opened the iron gate.

**I AM USING WORDPAD SO SORRY FOR ANY ERRORS. R&R**


	3. Chapter 3

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**Don't worry, Duncan will still have his green mohawk**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

Noah hesitated when we got to the front steps, setting my suitcase down as he would have gone no farther. As soon as I put one foot on the porch, the heavy oak door swung open, and I was immedediately enveloped in the two round arms of Gwen Hastings, the cook.

"Courtney Sparrow, you are welcome here indeed!" she cried.

I would have replied in kind, but i was losing my breath. As soon as I righted myself, she led me into the hall, and Noah brought my bags and boxes. At instructions he heaved and jockeyed my trunck up the stairs while I took off my bonnet and him mumbling something like, "Sports are not my strength. Why couldn't Eva have this job?" I rearranged my dress. Also on a request by Mrs. Hastings to me was that I am not allowed to call her Mrs. Hastings but Gwen. Noah seemed eager to leave, through, and as soon as he was downstairs and paid, I thanked him for his company and he went on his way.

I turned my attention to the house, I noticed the high ceilings and long flight of stairs leading to upstairs. The trim and walls were of a deep brown, and a heavy velet drapes at the windows a pale rose. On either side of the great hall, were paintings of the Sparrow family, my Uncle's side on the left, and his deceased wife (Heather I hate her so that is why she is deceased) both dressed in grey, were to the right, any my cousin Justin, their only son, on the left in brown.

At that very moment, I heard footsteps on the stairs and I looked up to see a man who was supposed to be in the sixities but looked like he was sixteen years of age, coming down to meet me.

"She's here!" Gwen cried, "And what she has brought, sir, would hardly fill a closet. She'll be no trouble at all."

Uncle Trent gave only the faintest smile. If I had not been watching his mouth so closely, I might not have recognized it as such, expect that it much resembled my fathers.

"And how was the journey?" he asked, shaking my hand but with no enthusiam, I noticed.

"I survived it well, but am very glad to be here, and thank you from the bottom of my heart for taking me in. I intend to make sure that I earn my keep, Uncle, and will do all I can to help Gwen."

"I know she will," Gwen stated as she squeezing my arm. While my Uncle had a black hair, Gwen had black hair with teal strips, putting my shoulder length straight brown hair at shame.

"We will have dinner in an hour or so," she told me, picking up my small valise. "Let me show you where your room is and then we will see you at the table."

"Courtney," Uncle Trent said.

"Yes uncle."

"Call me Trent not Uncle, sir, Uncle Trent. Just Trent if you don't mind."

"No I don't mind at all Trent."

I picked up another one of my traveling bags with Trent picking up the last one and we head upstairs to my new room.

What a welcoming surprised that I should be given a bedroom on the second floor with the others. I had thought I would have gotten an room in the attic, but I was taking the corner bedroom, with a four poster bed and chestnut drawers, as well as a writing desk and chair.

Gwen showedme the closet where I am to store my suitcases, and pointed out the windows overlooking the garden. There was a yellow quilt on my bed, a blue cushion on my chair, and I was most pleased with what I had found.

When they left me to unpack my things, I wondered, with each dress I hung up, how long that dress would hang there, and wheither or not this would be my last denstination, the only house to call home. Better then what most girls had, thats for sure.

Carefully opened the drawers in my dresser and in a neatly organized fashion, put my linens, stockings, and gloves. When I reached the bottom of my suitcase that I saw my mother's picture in its green silk frame, once again remembered how I had disobeyed the agreements for my stay here. I only knew that the color green upset Uncle Trent for reasons that I am not aware of, so I vowed not to let him see it. What remained unseen never upsets anyone I told myself, so I kept it at the bottom of my suitcase and shoved it into the far back in the closet.

"Well, Courtney Sparrow," I said looking at myself through the mirror- at my shoulder length brown hair, gray eyes, and a mouth that was a little large for my face, " It seems like you have a family and a room that is yellow."

As I said those very words, my eyes roamed the room, I saw that no where the color green was in sight. I went to the doorway and to look out the hallway, then the banister and the floor below. All was brown and rose, black and gray.

_"No matter,"_ I thought, "_Every family is odd in some way, and this shall be our preculiarity."_

After I had changed my dress so as to be more presentable at dinner, I went downstairs to the dining room to find that Trent was already at the head of the table waiting.

"I hope I'm not late," I said, " I was just admiring my room Trent."

"I believe you found it to your liking, "he told me while pointing to a chair next to him on his left and said, "That is where you will sit Courtney. Gwen will sit across from you and when Justin comes, he will sit at the other end. We will not wait for Justin, Gwen."

"Very good, sir," she said from the doorway of the kitchen and I saw Trent blush a little bit, and at once she served us a ladling of the soup.

"I will see my cousin, then?" I asked pleasently.

"He eats with us for most nights," Trent replied.

I was relieved that Gwen was allowed to eat with us becasue it would feel really weird to start a conservation with Trent by myself, and that I will see my cousin Justin.

"How long have you lived here?" I asked Gwen wondering about the Mrs. in her name.

"Since my Ezekiel passed away some twenty years ago," she said, " I was here when you visited as a cute little baby, but you really don't remember none of that."

"She knows this house as well as I do. BETTER than I do, in fact," said Trent.

We finished our soup and Gwen served us the fish she had poached. I was wondering why I haven't seen my cousin Justin yet or why he hasn't been here to eat when I heard a door open and close, and a somewhat man of forty years (he looks exactly like he does on TDI) came into the room with not a single word of apology for his tardiness, he took his place at the table. Gwen rose immediately to bring him both soup and fish.

As he was tucking his napkin under his chin, Cousin Justin looked at me and said, "Well, I see our orphan girl has arrived, and I daresay she has chosen the best room for herself and eaten most of the fish."

My face grew warm, and I opened to say a comeback when Justin broke out laughing saying, "Only a joke, Courtney. I sure hope you find your new home as the way you want it to be."

"Yes, It is lovely," I said in my most pleasent voice I could come with, I was still mad about his 'joke', "My room looks out on the garden and I believe that I can see the sea beyond."

"Not quite," said Justin spooning his soup into his mouth, "but it is only a short ride from here to the ocean, and when the windows are open during the summer, you can sometimes hear the waves crashing against the shore."

I was wondering why did Gwen feed Cousin Justin the soup. If he wanted the soup he should've been here on time, but I replied feigning happiness, "Oh, I will love living here, I know!" I wasn't lieing, I am more then delighted to make friends with the ocean with so little on my part.

"You were offered a job, I presume?" Trent asked.

"Yes, I was speaking to a man at the club who might have a postion open as a bookkeeper in his firm," Justin stated sounding bored.

"That seems like a fitting job for you," Trent replied.

"Fitting, perhaps, but boring. Nonetheless, I'll think about it,"Justin replied.

I was mad. A job is a job, who earn money to make your living, he shouldn't be complaining becasue its boring. "A bird in a hand ...," offered Gwen.

"Oh, Gwen, you would be delighted to see me take any job at all, just so I would not stop by here so often," Justin said.

"It's only that I think you should find your current unemployment even more boring," Gwen replied as a matter-of-fact as she reflected and decided that she had enough so she got up to serve the veal, and I found myself sitted in between father and son, knowing that niether one really wanted me.

_"BURN,"_ I thought, but I said, " If you instruct me, Trent, as to my duties here, I would like to begin as soon as possible," looking directly at him.

"I will leave that to Gwen," he said, "I'm sure she will find plenty for you to do, and what you do in your spare time is your business, I have my duties, Justin has his," then he whispered into me, "Not like he actually does them by himself without complaining," then went back to his normal voice while I laughed slightly to myself, "so please. do not expect us to entertain you. We have no desire to turn you into a servant, however, and you may come and go as long as Gwen is satisfield."

I couldn't beleive that I am being treated this nicely, and I thanked him more then once but several times.

After the veal there was cheese and wine, through the dinner was far better than I had eaten before, there was something missing. I could not decide what it was. Then, as apple tarts were served, half drowned in whipper cream, I realized that there was nothing green on the table: no beans or peas or spinach. Even in the winter time, my mother had managed to serve green beans that she had put up during summer. Well, I decided, the residents here look healthy enough, so I didn't worry about it any further.

I stayed in the kitchen later with Gwen until every fork and plate had been washed and put away. Then, long from exhausted, I bid her good night, went upstairs to my room, and sat myself down,relieved to be alone. I barely had the energy to take my dress and petticoats. Finally, taking my gown off, I slipped my stockings off, blew out the candle, and settled down beneath the covers.

So fast was I falling asleep that I barely heard a faint scrathing sound in my closet, I rose up on elbow and listened. It was part scrathin, clawing, or gnawing, as though something was trapped within the wall or behind the baseboard ----- a faint, gentle noise that did not seem urgent enough to rouse me.

"So we have mice," I said aloud and gave myself over to sleep.

**Sorry for misspelled words WORDPAD. HAVE A HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE, yea I know that its late but oh well. Read and Review, Oh and I need 22 color for each camper. Tell me what color should go with what camper in reviews.**


	4. Chapter 4

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**Don't worry, Duncan will still have his green mohawk**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

I woke up the next morning, barely remembering where I was, but when I saw the sun shining full in the window, turning the yellow curtain white with its brilliance, I jumped out of bed, washed and dress. I was scared about what Trent would think of me the laziest creature alive.

As I brushed my hair, I looked out the window to see the garden below, bending over some plants that were just showing themselves above ground and Gwen inspecting them. I walked down the stairs eagerly and out the back door.

"I'm so sorry I slept so long," I apologized. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Gwen pushed her black/teal hair out of her face, turned and smiled at me, "Come look, My peas are shooting up already."

"But... but, they're green!" I said stunned, that maybe Gwen was colorblind or she didn't notice.

"Ah, I cook them in a pot outdoors, and we eat them in the garden," she said pointing to a wroght iron table and chairs under the beech tree. "In summer this where we eat our salads." Changing the subject subject, she took my arm and led me back to the house to where she made the most wonderful tasting breakfast.

"What are my duties here?" I asked as I put cream in my tea, "Trent said to ask you."

"Keep me company, mostly," she said, "We have gardener who helps out now and then but he just merely skin and bones. (Harold) but you can weed if you like. Help out in the kitchen when needed. Tidy up the rooms, to tell you the truth, there really isn't much for you to do here, but if you wish, I heard that Katie's Hat Shoppe could use a ribbon clerk, and I would be glad to recommand you. But I must warn, if Katie's best friend comes you better have something to make a headache go away."

I could hardly believe it, for I liked the idea that I might earn money for my own, "Oh, yes!"

"We want to be happy here, sweetie," Gwen continued, ":If anything upsets you, you must let me know." This last was spoken was low that I wondered what she could mean.

"What can possibly upset me?" I asked, " You have all been kind so kind and I don't like to hold a grudge against someone."

Gwen busied herself at the stove, "Just...just...anything at all. Things you might hear, or notice, or see."

"Well, there are two little things..."

Gwen turned and looked at me in alarm. "What?"

"One I think there are mice in my closet."

She laughed at this, looking much relieved, "Is that all? I'll get you a trap, and we'll have those mice caught in no time. I refuse to have them eat their slippers when they belong here in the kitchen. What's the other thing?"

"I think that you are falling in love with Uncle Trent and that he is falling in love with you."

Gwen stared at me and said, "Am I really that easy to read."

"To me no, but Uncle Trent doesn't notice."

"Don't tell no one."

"My lips won't say one word."

That same afternoon I was up on my elbows in flour, for Gwen was teaching me how to make chicken pie. We had brought up potatoes and onions from the root cellar underneath the kitchen, and we were started working with the crust.

"Keep a light touch, my girl," she instructated, "but the shortening and flour must be cut together fine, like this."

I had just rubbed my nose with my arm when there was a knock at the back door, and walked in a tall boy with green hair sticking straight up and black hair on the side, he had a broad back, and carried a large bag of flour over one shoulder. I wondered what was up with haveing hair two colors, Gwen was black and teal and this kid was black and green.

"Hello, Duncan," Gwen said. "Put it down, what the hell, not on the girl's piecrust!"

It was too late, he walked over to me, squatted down beside me and, in his haste to get the bag off of his shoulders, which I can understand why, onto the table and he misjudged the distance, so the bag rolled over and on my breadboard."

"Now there is a clumsy oaf if I ever saw one!" Gwen cried while laughing.

Duncan looked at me with flour all over my face and he started laughing with Gwen. Lucky for me my hands were near the flour so I grabbed a handful and threw it at Duncan's face which made him stop laughing at me but I started laughing with Gwen laughing harder, "Sorry sir, but I just felt that you felt left out." I said in between laughing he started laughing again after my apologize.

When Gwen was finally able to contain her laughter she said, "Duncan Carey is the miller's son, and out delivery man as well, if there is anything you need, he can get it for you but he does get himself in trouble sometimes."

"Sometimes, I never get in fights."

"Yea you do."

Duncan just rolled his eyes and he looked at me, "And you must be Courtney, all the way from the cold North," he said while smirking.

"Well, Ohio is not exactly the Artic Circle," I said showing him that I know my geography, "But I am very glad to be here."

"What the hell is an Artic Circle?!"

"Someplace higher up in the North where it is cold all the time," I replied looking at him strangely.

"Oh."

"He doesn't pay attention in his classes."

"And _we _are very glad to have you too, princess,: he told me. The way he said the word "we" made my cheeks go red for a little bit, but then he said princess which made them go down. Gwen was smiling and I half believed that she put him up to this.

"My name is Courtney, not princess," I said as kindly as I could.

He smirked as he reached around Gwen and helped himself to a biscuit left over from breakfast, "So what do you do when you are not dusting yourself with flour? he asked me.

"I just got here yesterday and look who has the most flour on his face," I replied.

"Duncan, she will be busy enough so don't be putting ideas in her head and she does have the point, you do have most flour on your face," Gwen stated.

Duncan just shrugged at Gwen, but he looked directly at me and said, "Princess, when it gets warmer, you WILL go to the shore with me. You'll like that -- our ocean."

"What happens if I don't want to go with you?"

He just smirked and replied, "I can easily kidnap you besides I told you, I didn't ask you."

Gwen rolled her eyes as she had to shoo him out of the kitchen with her apron, as though he were a pestering goose, that was a young man who was not afraid to speak his mind and that he loves a challenge.

"He will kidnap you." Gwen stated.

Later in the afternoon I did my dusting, and was glad enough to do it, it gave me excuse to see every room. There was the dining room, with its long table and side board, each chair with an acron craved on its back; the living room, with its stained glass windows panels above the window, its massive fireplace, and the grand piano as black and shiny as coal. With great pleasure I dusted each key, sounding it softly, and knew that, undistingushed player that I was, I would play it even so. Then there was my uncle Trent's study piled high with books and papers. I noticed that there was guitar case in the corner, a picture of Gwen, and a song that didn't have name yet but it said, _"This is a song I am dedicating to our cook, Mrs. Gwen Hasting."_ I read some of the lyrics, the song required a piano, violin, and a guitar. Some of the lyrics were,

_"Ooh it's somethin' about_

_Just somethin' about the way she move_

_I can't figure it out_

_There's somethin' about her"_

I read the rest of it and I thought of a name for it but I won't tell him unless he asks for it.

The sunroom had wicker furniture.

When I had finished the first floor, I went up to the second, where there were five bedrooms and the restroom. Gwen and I had the two bedrooms at the back of the house while Uncle Trent and one of the corner bedrooms facing the front. The other one belong Justin, which was kept for him even through he stayed in town. The fifth bedromm, the smallest, was located just at the top of the stairs, and seemed to be used for storage. There were fishing rods, old lamps, and on the spare bed, a pile of quilts and hatboxes.

In each of the bedrooms minus that one and Justin's I made the beds, plumped the pillows, and dusted the dressers. I was curious about the spare bedroom, however. What intrigues me was that in addition to the closet, there was another door. When I opened it, I saw narrow stairs leading upward.

"I wouldn't go up there," a voice said.

I wheeled around to see Cousin Justin watching me from the hallway. It startled me, for I had not known he was in the house.

"The attic is full of cobwebs and dust ---- you would get your dress dirty," he smiled, then I watched his eyes traveled down the length of my dress.

"I...I was not planning to go up," I said, "I was checking to see if there was something in need of dusting."

"Certainly nothing up there," he told me as he went down to the kitchen.

I was walking down to the kitchen when someone grabbed my arm and pulled me into the study, "Did you dust in here?" Uncle Trent asked as he locked the door.

"Yes, was I not supposed to?" I asked, surprised at his actions.

"No, you was supposed to. Did you read the song?"

I gulped and replied, "Yes."

His eyes seemed to come alive and asked, "Did you like it?"

"Yes I did very much."

"Do you have a name for it?"

"Miss Independent?"

I'm guessing that he was singing the song in his head and then he looked at me, smiled, and hugged me, "That is perfect! Thank you! DON"T YOU DARE TELL HER EITHER"

"Your welcome and my lips are sealed."

He let me out of the room and I continued my way towards the kitchen.

As the next few days passed, I descovered that one did not know when Cousin Justin was around and when he was not. I might see him walking fast down the sidewalk adn out the iron gate, hat on head and cane in hand as through he was going to be late for an important meeting, and an hour later he might be lying on the divan reading the newspaper. Or he would say he was taking a coach into town, yet not long after, I would hear his footsteps on the stairs. Gwen told me that he not at all like his Uncle Trent, who would leave for work at the same time every morning. Sundays were in expection, and he would arrive him for dinner at the same time every evening. For a man who did not live here, Justin was very much evidence.

"What does Justin do? I asked Gwen as I helped her peel onions for stew one afternoon, "Does he work?"

"One is never too sure of Justin," Gwen said. "Now and then he takes employment. I don't know where."

A few days later, she gave me a mousetrap and some cheese.

"Set, this in your closet, Courtney, and in a few nights' time, I will image, you shall have the mice that are pestering you," she said.

I thanked her and that night before I blew out my candle, I put the cheese in the trap and set it on my closet floor. I heard nothing more for the past couple of nights, but the thrid night, there came that same scratching sound as before, but it was louder then it was last time, and more frequently, a determined clawing as through some small animal would make it through the wall of my closet, like it or not.

Sitting I sat up, I swung my legs over the side of the bed and lit my candle. There was a light thunk from the closet, and the scrathing stopped, I crept to the closet door and opened it very slowly. Holding the candle out in front of me I noticed that the mousetrap still set, with the chesse untouched. Nothing was nibbled, nothing was chewed. The air seemed colder all of a sudden, and I wrapped one arm about me, goose bumps rising on my flesh. What caught my eye, however, was the trunk. I took a step forward and held the candle closer. I know for sure that the lid of my suitcase was closed when I had put it away, but now it had been raised a few inches and rested slightly askew on its frame.

_"Maybe I am going to end up like my mom,"_ I thought.

**I am sorry for any misspelled words I am using Wordpad (I am going to say that whenever I am using Wordpad)**

**Thank to everyone who has given me colors for the campers. I still need more but here is what I have so far and I think that these will work so far.**

**Gwen-Midnight Blue**

**Heather-Blood Red **

**Izzy-Orange**

**Owen-Yellow**

**Noah-Grey**

**Bridgette-Sea Blue**

**Courtney-White**

**Duncan-Black**

**DJ-Forest Green**

**Katie-Pink**

**Sadie-Light Pink**

**Tyler-Red**

**Geoff-Blue**

**So I still need, Beth, Cody, Justin, Leshawna, Lindsey, Trent, Eva, Ezekiel, and Harold.**

**Read and Review about what you think of the story so far and what colors you think the others should have. I need them for my next fanfiction. XD XD**

**Snowleopardlover**


	5. Chapter 5

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

Kneeling on the floor of the closet, the eerie light coming from the candle, I felt most apprehensive and my flesh grew colder still. It appeared through as someone has been going through my things and had carelessly left my suitcase's lid open.

What if Trent found my mother's picture in its green silken frame? Would I then, for my disobedience, be put into the street with no one in this world to protect me?

With shaking hands, I set the candle on the floor and shut the lid of my suitcase.

_Whack!_

With a cry, I flung myself around as something grabbed at my foot. Then my breath gave away to relief, becasue I saw that I had so stupidly set off the mousetrap and caught my toe in it. Wincing at the pain, I released the trap and turned my attention back to suitcase.

Carefully I raised it, afraid even to peer inside. But the framed picture was right where I had left it, beneath my summer dresses. Nothing seemed amiss expect that the lid of the suitcase was slightly open.

_"Well," _I thought, _"either I did leave the lid of it ajar when I put it away or Gwen did a quick inspection." _I would know soon enough tomarrow at breakfast.

And so, still worried about my future in my new household, I reset the mousetrap, blew out the candle, and crawled back under the covers, glad that my small scream didn't wake up anyone. It was a while before I went back to sleep.

When I did wake up, it was morning, and rain was beating against the window. I got out of bed and put on my second best dress with black stockings becasue today is the day that Gwen was coming with me to Katie's Hat Shoppe for my interviewed for a job. I entered the kitchen nervous that Gwen will kick me out, but she was her usual cheerful self.

"Now that will make a wonderful impression on Katie." Gwen said while looking at my red and white dress with a black ribbon at the collar and hem, "Here I have warmed some biscuits for you sweetie."

Since I rarely get up the same time as my uncle, I liked having breakfast in the kitchen with Gwen.

"Any luck with the mice?"

I answered truthfully, "Not yet."

"Well, they are wary at first but they will venture out to it some night, you will see." she said.

At the moment we heard Cousin Justin enter the front door. He came in the kitchen looking at us, surprised. He eyed my dress with approval. "You ladies are going somewhere i presume?" He noticed that Gwen was wearing a dress without an apron on. He took a cup from the cupboard that she might pour him some coffee, which she did at once.

"We are going to Katie's Hat Shoppe, where I am to be interviewed for a job!" I told him excited.

I was expecting he would say something that would welcom this opportunity for me to have an income of my own, but I could see from how his mouth was, that he didn't take well to the news.

"Katie's Gossip Shoppe is what I would call it," he said, "You will hear more stories there than any where else in this world."

I thought, _"It's better then unemployment," _I wanted to say those words to his face.

"Courtney has a good head on her shoulders. I daresay she will be able to gossip from truth," Gwen said before I could I say what I wanted to say, "It will do her good to be out making friends. Now if you will take your coffee into the parlor and out of our way, Justin, I will get this bread to its rising before we leave."

Justin left the kitchen grumbling, and Gwen just shocked her head as she worked, "One your right it is better then unemployment and two, sometimes a person has to speak their mind besides, he doesn't pay my wages. It's Mr. Sparrow. Now! Go get your bonnet, my girl, and we will be off."

By the time we started out, the rain of that morning had stopped, and through we had to watch for puddles, I took great pleasure in walking the half mile to Katie's Hat Shoppe. The whispering trees that lined the streets had now begun to take on a faint green color, the newest of the leaves unfolding, and I was happy that Gwen had made no mention of my suitcase; so I begun to suspect that I had forgotten to shut the lid as I was certain that I did.

The hat shop was a little nook in a row of shops along King Street. It had a pink door, pink shutters, and a little bell that dinged as soon as one entered. Katie Harper was a tall, thin woman, with black hair in two pigtails at the near the top of her head which, I venture was dyed becasue her face was quite wrinkled. Nonetheless, I excused this deception, for the reason was that she was most gracious and dressed so elegantly, I couldn't help but feel thrilled that I might be employed by such a woman of fashion.

"This is our Courtney," Gwen said proudly.

"EEE! You are so cute! How do you do?" asked Katie, her smile was as fine as her dress. We talked quickly about what brought me to Whispers, and I can tell that all the time I was answering her questions, she was observing the manner of my speech and the posture, and my fingernails, which I had trimmed and even them out this morning. When I had finally answered her questions, she said to Gwen, "I know that she will do excellent here, Gwen. We will let her sample the work today, and if it is too her liking, she will begin at full pay next week."

I was glad! Gwen hugged me and went back home, and I was introduced to the other girl in the shop, a young woman two years older then me that went by the name of Leshawna Marrison.

"When a woman comes in for a new bonnet," Katie explained, "I help her find a style that will fit her face, and we decide how it should be trimmed. Then Leshawna, here, will put the creation together. Your job, Courtney, is to keep the cupboard stocked with ribbon and lace, and to cut the amounts we need for each hat, measuring just so. Leshawna will teach you the art of hatmaking so that in time, if you are observant, you may work up to hatmaking yourself, with a raise in wages. But for now," she added, "you and Leshawna will get to know each other better, and I will let her show you how we cut and measure."

The small bell on the front door jingled, and she went over to admit a large woman in lavender coat. I went to into the back room with Leshawna, who had black hair in a ponytail, she had small brown eyes, and a figure of a fighter.

"I am _so so so _glad that you have come!" she said, " I begged and begged Katie to take you on, sight unseen, for I get really bored stitching back here by myself all day, especially when Katie is with a customer or her best friend. Are you sure that your uncle doesn't mind you working?"

"Oh, yes," I answered. "He has already said I am free to come and go whenever I like!"

"Yea, that what he told that other white girl and look what happen to her! Sorry my family has a fighting in our blood so I talk like that some times," she said pulling out a stool that she could stand on it to show me the bolts of netting and the spools of ribbon on a shelf above the cutting table.

"That's fine and what other girl?" I asked as I took my bonnet off and sat it on a chair.

"The white girl that lived there before you came here. Izzy Green. Didn't they tell you?"

"Why, no they didn't!" I said. "I have't heard of no Izzy Green."

"Dang it! I put my foot in it!" Leshawna exclaimed as she clapped one hand over her mouth.

"No please!" I exclaimed. "If I am to live there, I need to know! Did she displeased my uncle?"

Leshawna studied me unsure to tell me or not, but she didn't reply back.

"Leshawna, you _must _tell me!" I begged. I hate begging but when push come to shove, beg. "Where is she now? Did he turn her out?"

She looked around anxiously, as through afraid that someone might be eavesdropping. "He didn't turn her out, Courtney, and what went on in that house, I really can't say. But the girl was Izzy Green, adn she's been dead for three years."

**Here are the colors I have so far.**

**Gwen-Midnight Blue**

**Heather-Blood Red**

**Izzy-Orange**

**Justin-Tan**

**Owen-Yellow**

**Noah-Grey**

**Trent-Green**

**Bridgette-Sea Blue**

**Courtney- White**

**Duncan-Black**

**DJ- Forest Green**

**Eva-Purple**

**Geoff-Blue**

**Katie-Pink**

**Sadie-Light Pink**

**Tyler- Red**

**Lindey-Red Orange**

**Ezekiel-Dark Blue**

**Harold-Blue Green**

**I still need Cody, Beth, and LeShawna**


	6. Chapter 6

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

A weakness came over me, I could harldy catch my breath.

"Dead?" I cried. "There has not been mention of her name since I entered the house! I haven't heard a single word of it since I came to Whispers!"

"I doubt you will," said Leshawna, her voice was low, "Your uncle would like to never hear of her again, I'm sure, for it was a dreadful shock to have someone die in his very home!"

"Was she ill?"

"She took her own life," Leshawna said getting a bolt of blue veiling from the top shelf and getting off the stool.

I put my hand to my throat and gasped," Who was she? Why was she living in Uncle Trent's house?"

"Your Uncle Trent is a Christian man, and the girl was penniless, with nowhere to go. The reverend at the chapel asked if he can in any way take her in, and she finally found her home where you are now."

"Did you know her?"

"Not well. She worked at the butcher shop but I saw her now and then at the Bib and Bottle. She was ..."

Katie's tall figure appeared in the doorway, "Leshawna!" she sternly, "I will not have any gossip in my shop. The matter of Miss Green is not to be spoken of here again. Am I clear?"

"Crystal clear," Leshawna said as her cheeks went pink as she spread the veiling out on the counter quickly.

When Katie had gone back into the next room, Leshawna and I exchanged looks as we were bent over to do our task.

"I will save the rest till we are _out _of the shop then," Leshawna said in a mischievously voice. I couldn't help but smile and feel that I had found a livelt friend.

There was so much to learn about hats, and I came away that day, my head spinning with sizes, shapes, brims, crowns -- so much so that my head was throbbing. But the walk on the way home in the spring air was very much to my liking.

When I turned onto Stone Street, the house seemed like it was grinning at me, that it knew far more then what I discovered so far. Again, I felt the same boreboding and decided that the best action to do was go to Gwen directly and ask her. I can imagine my Uncle Trent taking in a hapless young woman without a penny to her name and giving her shelter, just as he had done with me. I didn't understand why a fortunate young girl would take her own life.

As soon I was seated in the kitchen with Gwen over a cup of tea, my bonnet in my lap I said, "Mrs. Hastings, there's something distrubing me deeply and I can only think of you to come to with this issue."

"Well it must be important if you call me Mrs. Hastings. What is it my dear?" she said.

I expected her to assure me that she would put my fears away whatever they may be. I could see, however, that she almost stopped breathing, and I begun to suspect that she was very much wishing I would stop asking her questions all together. Nonetheless, I wanted to know about Izzy Green and why she took her own life.

"Why hasn't anyone told me about a girl named Izzy Green lived in this house and why did she take her own life?"

Gwen went paler, I thought that was impossible becasue she was pale enough the way it was, but she went paler then normal, and her lips were working differently before she spoke, "Sweetie, there was a young girl who your uncle befriended at the request of the clergy, and she died here some three years ago. I would have thought this would've frightened you to learn this, coming to a strange house in a faraway town with a not a soul you can call a friend. I decided that as soon you felt more settled here, I would tell you of Izzy Green.

"Well," I began, "you are very kind to have such regards for my feelings, but I am now settled and I am ready to listen if you want to tell me it." I pushed my tea cup away from me to show her that she has my undivided attention.

Gwen kept stirring her own tea long after her put milk and sugar in it.

"She was quite a young thing when she came to us, not more then twelve and, if I may speak plainly, little more than a street child. She never knew her father, and her mother was of the profession that women care to mention, so Izzy had been left to herself more often then she was with her mother. She had spent her days on the street begging or stealing food, for she didn't care for the school and likewise with the school."

"When the reverend came calling on Mr. Sparrow to see if she might take her in -- ours being a large house, well-situated in the heart of town and convenient to a young girl's needs -- I spoke in her favor for Ezekeil and I had long been childless. It semmed a blessing that this house -- with Mrs. Sparrow since she died -- should have a young occupant again. And your uncle agreed."

At this point Gwen pulled a handkerchief from her sleeve and held it ready as I saw her eyes start to glisten.

"Oh, I made ready for that gir!" she said, "I had been told that green was her favorite color, so I made an outfit just for her -- green bonnet, green dress, a little green jacket to go over it all -- and she was given the room at the top of the stairs, the small one, as the room you are in now was reserved for company."

Here, Gwen began to swallow and dab at her eyes, and I wished that I had not ask her to explain Izzy Green.

"If you want you can telll me another time," I said as kindly and trying to cheer her up.

"No no, this was going to happen sometime."

After a while she began, "Well, she was a handful, let me tell you. She was so used to sleeping in the gutter, she was, that I couldn't persuade her to lie in bed. It was only with the greatest difficulty that she learned to live as we do, that she would put on stocking and speak with the civil tongue well mostly. She spoke like this, 'Izzy likes the color green.' Not once did she say 'I' or 'Me' or 'My'. Over time, kindness had won her over, and our little hyper Izzy slowly came to enjoy our ways."

"She could not be induced to return to school, however, by now she was too smart for others around her age. She proved to be most proficient with her hands and knives to where she got a job at a butcher shop, where she received a steady wage. It has been said that she could bone a chicken half the time it took the men, her fingers being small and nimble."

Gwen stopped and took a sip of her tea, smiling at the memories. "What she brought to the house, it's hard to say. But Trent was all stiffness and propriety, Izzy Green was lighthearted, hyper, and careless. Where Trent barely smile, Izzy was a prankster and at times it made him laugh and delighted. If there was a sun or night, Izzy was our sun, and before long Trent began asking her at the evening, 'Is Izzy about?' he would ask and sometimes just knowing she was in the house or at the gardens was enough for him. He would get comfortable in his chair, postive that she would have a tall tale to tell him at dinner."

Here Gwen's lower lip began to tremble. " himself was as fond of her as if she were his own daughter, for he had no daughters have his own, you know. He read to her in the evening and taught her how to play simple tunes on the piano. Sometimes, when she saw he was tired, she would sit down and make him a melody," she signed in a dreamy like way, "How is eyes would light up!"

Then she broke down into sobs, "We thought she was...we thought she was happy here. We thought she...felt at home. And then, there came that dreadful day, that I found her body..." Gwen went to the window and looked out. Her shoulders were shaking until she was able to compose herself, she walked back.

"Oh, Mrs. Hastings! I am so sorry that I brought this subject up. I didn't mean to casue you so much sadness and greif. If you want I can leave that way I will never ask you about her again." I cried.

"Oh dear, I don't want you to leave, it's just a stage I go through now and then when Trent isn't around." She continued with Izzy Green by saying, "The coroner said you can never be sure about what to tell these people -- it's in their makeup, these violent urges, these 'strange unaccountables,' he calls them. But from then, Trent declared that the color green is longer allowed. Expect for Duncan's hair that is allowed. So that is why, Courtney, it is banished forever and we are to never speak her name in his presence."

I sat there in silence, not knowing what to do. Finally, Gwen turned from the window, I said, "I'm so sorry, and hope that my stay here will help, in someway, whether its small or not, to ease away the pain and suffereing."

"You already have," Gwen said.

"Still," I continued, knowing that if I was to never speak of Izzy again, I shoud do it now and keep it forever, "the story you just told me is the same which was told to me by Leshawna Morrison at the hat shop. Yet, Cousin Justin suggested that what I will hear there is nothing more then gossip, and Katie Harper herself, upon hearing our talk, declared it as gossip. If this is true Gwen, then what is the gossip I should disregard?"

Again, I saw her face stiffen, she trust her hankercheif up her sleeve, and said, "All you have heard this far is the truth. Everything else is gossip." With that she grabbed the broom and dustbin, sweeping with such force I knew that I am to leave the kitchen and not to ask anymore questions about her.

I went outside and walked through the gardens. I saw the old gardener, bent over and nearly deaf, pruning a bush. I could scarely organized the questions in my head. When I had arrived in Whispers, I'd thought, if anyone, Gwen Hastings was my friend, and that I could trust her with my life if it came down to that. I knew as sure as I knew my own name that there was, there had to be, more to the story than this. When I looked back at the house, I saw Gwen studying me behind the curtain and Cousin Justin watching me from a window above.

**I still need colors for Leshawna, Cody, and Beth**

**~Snowleopardlover~**


	7. Chapter 7

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

What was I supposed to do and who can I trust? I could hardly think of anything but to go back in the house for I had no where else to turn too.

Walking into the parlor, I looked about for something to distract me, that I should be in a better state of mind when it was time for dinner. I sat down at the piano and played a piece that mother taught, "The Shepherd's Song," suprised as how clumsy my fingers wre, not playing the piano for the past several.

There was a book of songs on the piano, and I leafed through it, looking for one that didn't take too much skill. I came upon a piece called, "Springfield Mountain," but it was the lyrics that caught my eye:

_On Springfield Mountain there did dwell_

_A lovely youth I knowed him well._

_This lovely youth one day did go_

_Down to the meadow for to mow._

_He scare had mowed quite a round the field_

_When a cruel serpent bit his heel._

_They took him home to Molly dead_

_Which made him feel so very queer._

_Now Molly had two ruby lips_

_With which the poison she did sip_

_Now Molly had a rotting tooth, _

_And so the poison killed them both._

Each verse was followed by the chrous which was

_Too roo de nay, too roo de noo_

_Too roo de nay, too roo de noo._

_"Is this a very strange song!" _I thought, Yet the tune was a simple one, repeated over and over, and one for which my fingers were used too, and so I bagan to play.

At once a voice behind me screamed, "Please stop!"

It scared me so much that my hands slipped off the keys and into my laps. I turned around to see Trent in the doorway, his face greatly mad.

I didn't know what to say so I blurted out, "I'm sorry Uncle. I didn't think that my playing would bother you, through, I know how terrible I am at it."

He looked flustered then, "You're welcome to play the piano, your not terrible at it, and I just don't care for that particular song,"

"As you wish," I said. I turned and looked through the music book again and found another, "Evening star," and I played it without any trouble. Then we were called to dinner.

Uncle Trent was trying hard, I could tell, was trying to apologize to me about scaring me like that in the parlor, As Gwen served the roast duck, he said, "I understand that today was your first day in the hat shop, Courtney. I hope that you will find it pleasent enough to work there."

"I will indeed," I replied, "and as I learn the trade, there will be an increase in wages. So I'm quite content, and I won't leave my duties here."

"Now don't worry about that, honey," Gwen put in, "The work around here will wait. The dust won't be going no where soon, and you can use the mop on a Tuesday as well as a Monday. A young girl like you shouldn't be shut up in a house all week, anyway. I think Duncan would get mad at me for that too."

"That's true enough. Has Duncan been coming over?" Uncle Trent asked.

"Yes and he keeps asking if Courtney is here," Gwen replied.

Coustin Justin coughed and said, "Courtney, I would stay away from that kid. He is trouble. To the capital T."

"How was your day today Justin?" Uncle Trent asked.

"I was a bit late getting up, so I didn't get out of the house until ten, but I did make a tour of the new town hall that we needed so badly, Father, and I found that the architecture is quite as grand as they said it would."

Trent sipped his wine, putting his glass down and asked, "Did you, by chance, visit any of the offices there and ask what opportunties there might be for your employment?"

"Lika a regular begger?" Justin asked irritably, standing up straight, "Upon my word, Father, if there is a job suitable for my talents, I daresay _they _will come to _me._"

"Thay can hardly come to you if they don't know what your 'talents' are, and I will not decribe them to people for you," his father said with displeasure.

This was close as an argument as what I heard, and I kept my eyes on my plate, quickly helping myself to carrots that Gwen had handed me. When dinner was over, I was helping Gwen cleaning up the dishes, the argument between Uncle Trent and Cousin Justin was getting at a higher volume in the parlor that even if Gwen and I covered our ears, we can still here each word perfectly clear. The clink of the brandy glass upon the tray told us how annoyed Trent was getting,

"...whittling your time away!" Uncle Trent boomed, "At the grand age of forty, Justin, you have little to show for it. How am I to leave my estate to you when you have held no job worth mentioning to prove you can manage it?"

"And how am I to manage when I have so little to practice on? If you refuse me more income, Father, there is nothing to invest, nothing to manage," countered Justin.

"And why must it be _my _property upon which you try your talents?" exploded Trent, "Why haven't you made any effort to earn you own money fortune. Then, when I see you can handle that, I will have no hesitation in leaving the estate in your name."

Gwen and I looked at each other in the kitchen, ashamed that we were overhearing this conservation such as this personal one, yet, every word came through the door as clearly as was there

"They do go at it now and then," she said to me as pursing her lips. "Spoiled, he is, that Justin. Heather Sparrow, she's the one who did it. Kept him here in the house waiting on her hand and foor --never asked anything of him but to take her about wherever she would go. After she died, Justin began doing all things he couldn't do before."

"And now?" I asked.

"Now that it's just Justin and his father, things are being said that should have been spoken years earlier," She signed, "Who am I? The cook, that's all. And so I hold my tongue." She smiled at me and added, "Most of the time, anyway."

"Do you want me to take on work beneath my station, like all the poor beggar on the street, Father?" came Justin again.

"Never be ashamed of honset work, Justin, I would rather be shamed for idleness as that."

"Well, just remember this," Cousin Justin replied, " I am your only living offspring. Don't be overly generous with others in your will."

"That's us," whispered Gwen as we plunged our arms in the soapy water in the sink, "You and me. Justin is so scared that we might be left a copper penny or two that I think he would see us to the station himself if ever we was to leave Whispers."

"It's horrible having to live somewhere you are not wanted," I murmeured.

"Oh, Courtney, I want you here, and so does your Uncle Trent. Now don't go worring about Justin. His bark is worse then his bite."

Then there came a knock on the door, I raised an eyebrow as to wondering who would be here this late of the day. Gwen looked at me and I can see she was wondering the same thing.

Then we saw a green mohawk, "Who's bark is worse then their bite?"

"Duncan what are you doing here this late?" Gwen asked.

'I will leave whatever I want to whoever I want. You cannot control that becasue you haven't hold a job to prove something to me!" Uncle Trent barked so hard and mad that I jumped.

"Their fighting again?" Duncan asked.

"What was your first clue and why are you here this late?" Gwen asked again

"I just came by to see if princess was here for a change," he said smirking at me.

I just rolled my eyes,"Your lucky I don't have flour near me this time."

"Yea," he said as he scratched the back of his neck, "about that. My mom just started yelling at me becasue I can't stay clean for one day but she was laughing. It's usually dirt, mud or blood, on my face. Never flour."

I stepped away from him then he said, "Just kidding about the blood."

"Duncan, you shouldn't be here! It's late out and you might get hurt," Gwen said.

I was worried about the hurt part, I didn't want him to get hurt becasue he wanted to see me.

"My parents know that I am here and I'm not afraid of Justin."

"I know that but did you ever think that maybe somebody will get hurt if you get hurt." she said

"Huh? What now?" he asked completely clueless.

Gwen slapped her forehead as I said, "If you get hurt. Someone else will feel pain, becasue you did something stupid for them."

"Oh." he said then he walked towards me and put his face inches from mine, "So if I get hurt from your cousin, you will feel pain becasue I came here to see you, princess?"

I couldn't help but give a small smile and blushed.

Gwen grabbed his shoulders and dragged him out saying, "We have to finish doing dishes."

"You like him don't you?" she asked coming back. Then she stopped and started walking backwards toward the door putting a finger to her mouth as to keep me silent.

I shocked my head and she opend the door and Duncan can tumbling in, "Hi again."

"Hello," I replied trying my best not to laugh.

I went back to doing the dishes while Gwen asked, "Your not leaving are you?"

"No ma'am. Is it okay if I stay here in the kitchen with princess?"

"Okay but help her do the dishes," Gwen said as she exited the kitchen to go to her bedroom to sleep, "Oh, by the way, the song that you played when Uncle Trent told you to stop playing that song is becasue that was what Izzy always played."

"So, princess. Where have you been?" he asked as he started washing the dishes while I dried them off and put them away.

"At Katie's Hat Shoppe."

He raised an eyebrow, "Your buying a hat?"

"No, I worked there."

"Oh. No wonder your not here during the day."

I was putting the last pan away when I turned around, Duncan was there and he put his arms around my waist and pulled me close to him, "So, who's bark is worse then their bite?"

"Cousin Justin."

"Ah. Well I better get going. I am going to take you to the ocean someday," he said as he moved his arms away from my waist adn walked out the door.

I went to my bedroom and as I was sitting by my window, turning the pages, I detected a small scurrying sound from inside my closet.

"They're back," I said listening for the sound of the trap to spring, after a minute or two the scurrying sound stopped.

_"I will catch those mice!" _I thought as I saw a shadow outside my open door. It didn't move, but I can tell from where it lay was that someone stand just around my doorway.

Putting my book down, I walked across the rug and came face-to-face with Justin in the hallway.

"I suppse," he said, "that you and had your ears glued to the study door."

I was shocked I was at his words that I barely noticed that he got hold of my wrists.

"I tell you, sir, I was n-not listening on purpose," I stammered. "All I heard came to me in the kitchen clearly." I tried to pull away, cradling my hands against my chest.

A smile played on Justin's lips but his eyes never softened. "My father and I do argue from time to time," he said, "but it is nothing that involves you." He let go of my hand but, in withdrawing his own, let one finger slide down the buttons of my bodice. "Our affrairs do not concern you in the least."

He turned and went swiftly back down the stairs.

I went back to room, sitting down by the window again when this time rocks I heard rocks hit my window, I looked over and opened the window to tell whoever it was to please stop, but when I did open my window I came face-to-face with Duncan.

"What do you want now?" I asked as I let him in.

"Can't I come check up on you?"

"You did so not to long ago," I pointed out.

"Yea, well. Maybe I want you to see you again?"

I blushed at his words then I said, "So you climbed a tree to get to my bedroom?"

"Yes," he said as he put his face inches away from mine again, "Mrs. Hastings told me which one was yours."

"When was this? When you came to check up on me when I was work?"

"Yea," he backed away and he asked, "did you cousin hurt you?"

"No, he didn't why?"

"If he does, let me know."

He kissed my forehead and climbed back down the tree. I stood there, not being able to move before I went and shut my window.

**I CAN SAY THAT I DO NOT NEED NO MORE COLORS **

**I HAVE ALL 22 COLORS YAY**

**I WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERY AND SINGLE ONE OF YOU THAT GAVE ME COLOR IDEAS FOR THE CAMPERS.**

**MAKE SURE TO REVIEW AND TO READ THE ISLAND DANCE AND YOUR THOUGHTS ON MY SONG FICTION**

**STAY BY SUGARLAND **

**ITS COURTNEY/DUNCAN/HEATHER**

Snowleopardlover~


	8. Chapter 8

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

I was happy that Justin lived in town, but I resloved then and there that whenever I was in my room, I will close the door, and did that at once. I went to bed for the night, but sleep didn't come easily. Turning this way and that, I rose as to open the window wider that the way the breeze can help me go to sleep. I have no idea what I dreamt of, expect that I was woken up sometime in the night to the sound of a creaking door.

My eyes were soon opened wide, I lay there, one hand on my pounding heat, _"Justin?" _The door creaked again.

"Who's there?" I called

There wasn't a reply.

I struck a match to lit my candle. The room was empty. The door to the hallway was shut just as I had left it but the door to my closet was open several inches wide.

I lay there clutching the sheet to my chin in terror, I knew I had closed it, especially with mice nesting as they were inseide. I didn't blow my candle out, but I let it burn the rest of the night and the sleep that had seemed like there was none.

The next morning, with the sun fully shining on my curtain, I presumed that I didn't closed the closet door as I had thought and that the breeze coming from the window had blown the door to and fro.

Clearly, the nightmares I have had in the past when my father died, then my mother, were visiting themselves upon me. There was often time that I was seized with the terror that what happen to my parents might happen to me. The slightest sickness would bring thoughts about death to me, with these morbid thoughts, in turn, made me afraid of my mothers madness. Work, to me, was the only solution, and becasue I would not begin at the hat shop until next week. I went downstairs and told Gwen that I would like harder work to help me in my sleep, and she gladlyaccepted. Tieing down a towel arounf the bristles of a broom, she instrucated that to go through the entire house and get rid of all the cobwebs from the ceiling.

"If that doesn't wear you out, sweetie, you can scrun the back and front poarches," Gwen laughed, "but I'll bet that you will scarely hit the sheets tonight before you're asleep."

I went to work at once, sweeping the broom high overhead, running it along the statues, traveling the down corners and around the gas lamps on the walls. I vowed that I wouldn't go in Cousin Justin's room until I was 100% certain that he was out of the house. When Gwen assured me that he was at the horse race. I cleaned the cobwebs from his ceiling also. Wanting to be thorough in my work, I cleaned his closet and I was impressed at the number of suits I found hanging there, even through he lived in town --- clothes of the best cut and cloth. In other words, he had so much, he couldn't keep them all in one place.

"How he lives and what he owns is no business of me," I reminded myself outloud, and moved on down the hall to the spare bedroom next to the restroom.

I knew when I entered it this time that I would not be so easily discouraged from investigating the stairs to the attic. Gwen did tell me to tackle the cobwebs. She didn't tell me where to stop. So I took this as permission -- instruction, even-- to sweep down the cobwebs in the attic as well. I swept about the walls of the small bedroom with my broom, and when I had seen to that task, I turned my attention to the door on one side, slowly opening it, revealing the narrow staircase.

It was noon, the passageway was so dark to where I had to get the candle from my room and holding it in one hand, the broom in the other. I went up stairs a step at a time, my lips parted to let out a breath, my breathing became so rapid.

The candle light cast out huge shadows upon the slanted attic ceilling, and there was little space to walk, for the floor was packed with boxes, suitcases, and furniture that I could take a few steps at a time this way and that. The air was heavy with the smell of paper, old cloth, and dust, and the curtains I had seen at the gable windows from out on the street proved to be yellowed, threadbare things, scacrely more than cobwebs themselves. Up here, the two gable windows struck me as even more fear some, for they seemed to be eyes looking inward, studying my every move. I held the candle at arm's length to light the far corneres, and satisfied myself that there were was nothing out of the ordinary in the attic.

Nothing moved, expect the shadows, and they only was moving becasue my hand was trembling. Finally, after much relieved, I forgot the cobwebs completely and startled down again.

Halfway down, my heart leaped against the wall of my chest, for there was a large, dark shadow on the remaining steps. I stood montionless, fearing that someone might be standing there outside attic door. As my breathing returned and I stepped carefully stepped on one of the darkened steps and examined it more closely, I saw that it wasn't a shadow at all, but a dark stain embedded in the wood.

Holding the canndle over the deep mahogany stain, the pounding of my heart affrimed what my brain first thought -- the color of blood. I hadn't thought it was there when I had climbed up the stairs, yet there it was, as sure as the slippers on my foot, and I wondered if my mind was turning against me.

I took in a deep breath and leaned against the wall, trying to conquer my terror. Yes, it was blood, most certainly. This is where the deed was done, I know it now. I tried to imagine a Izzy Green hiding on the attic stairs and taking her life. What could have caused her to do it --- a girl as spunky and full of life as she had been, according to the cook.

I went swiftly on down, and when I was in the room below, I closed the attic door behind me and sat down on the spare bed until my pulse finally slowed. The better I knew the house, I was postive, the less I would fear it, no matter what its tales, and the better I will sleep at night. The blood on the staircase distrubed me greatly.

I worked so hard all day that I slept very well the evening, and the next and the next. When I woke up the morning of my first full day in Katie's Hat Shoppe, it seemed like, summer had come overnight to Whispers. Leaves that had only been tight little curls before was now unfolded, and a green world was appearing beyond my windows.

"Oh, Gwen!" I cried, entering the kitchen, "It is a beautiful day!"

"Yes, it is!" she replied, "Trent took his coffee in the garden this morning before going to work, and biscuits and jam waiting for you too under the beech tree."

To tell the truth, I was so eager to get to the hat shop that I had hoped to skip breakfast altogether, but the garden did look inventing, and so I took my place at the wrought-iron table out on the grass and let Gwen served me, as it gave her great pleasure to do so.

It didn't please me that Cousin Justin decided to join me, who came around the side of the house and sat across from me. It didn't escape me that for a man who lived some place esle, he managed to show up regularly at mealtimes.

"Good morning," he said pleasntly, as he waited until Gwen served him his coffee and gone back inside he said, "Tell me, Courtney, what was your financial situtation of your father, my Uncle Geoff, at the time of his death? It seems inconceivable to me that he should penniless as you have us believed."

I could barely believe his rudeness, "How can you doubt me?" I said. "What have I done to make ask such a question as that?"

"I didn't mean to be rude," he replied. "But as you are now considered family, you may be treated like family, and it's the type of question I would freely ask a sister."

_"Perhaps not, if you do have a sister then you know what her finacial situtation is. Next time come with a better saying," _I thought. I could hardly expct to embraced as family yet treated as a guest.

"Very well," I said. "My father did not have the business sense of Uncle Trent, and some of his decisions were poor ones. While we did not live in poverty after his death, he owed so many people that Mother, your Aunt Bridgette, and I were forced to see our most valueable processions to pay off his debts."

"He left you nothing at all? Surely there was the family silver, your mother's jewely, paintings, furnishing ..."

_"You sure do listen well don't you?" _I thought but replied, "All that we had we sold, Cousin Justin. Mother and I moved into a set of rooms in a neighbor's house and lived very simpley. And, simply put, ..." _"Becasue you don't simply listen," _" I came to you penniless."

"Well, that is unfortunate, if that is true," he said. "Not, of course, that it makes any difference."

"Thank you," I said, wishing deeply with my heart that I could believe him.

I took a bite of biscuit and a sip of tea and when I looked up again I was diconcerted, for this time his frown had been replace by a smile that no more comforting, and his eyes were not on my face, but my figure.

I could fell my cheeks burn and dropped my eyes once again. He laughed, and set down his cup. "Well, I see you are off to the gossip shop in your dinery," he said. "Tell Leshawna Morrison that if she keeps talking, her tongue will fall off." With that he left the garden.

_"I will not let anyone ruin this day," _I told myself determined and, with gathering up my plate and cup, took them inside the house. Indeed, when I started out to the hat shop, the sun warm upon my face, the trees a wonderful shade of green -- the green so new, the flowers so fresh, and the lightness of air -- I began to think that Whispers was the prettiest town on this east coast.

There was several customers inside the shop, when I arrived, and next thing I knew was that fetching the ribbon and thread for Katie, going in and out of the back to get first one color of the veiling, then another, and hoped that I could make it past the first day without making a mistake.

Finally, at lunchtime, Leshawna and I went next door to the Bib and Bottle for a meat pie to eat on a bench outside. If I could take slippers as well, I would've be content, becasue they pointed at the ends and pinched my toes.

"There won't too many days like this," Leshawna said, "It'll be hotter than a stove lid come summertime." She took a drink of her ale and then asked me, "So, what is it liked living in the Sparrow place?"

"I like it well enough," I told her, "I have a fine room overlooking the garden, and they ask so little of me. In short, I am treated as a daughter."

"AT NIGHT!" Leshawna went on, her eyes looking directly on mine. "What do you do then?"

"What do you mean? What almost everyone else do? I sleep."

"Haven't seen or hear _her_?"

"Who?" I asked, even through my heart I knew the answer before she spoke, and goosebumps appeared on my arms.

"Izzy Green," she answered, "She's there, they say. If you haven't seen her yet, you will."

**No author's note**

~Snowleopardlover~


	9. Chapter 9

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

I could hardly think, hearing what I feared the most coming from Leshawna's lips.

Still, this was the gossip Gwen and Justin warned from me about. Wasn't it a human nature to suspect a ghost to be living in a house where she had died, expecially one who was killed by her hand?

"Well," I said to Leshawna, "If Izzy Green still haunts Trent's house, I haven't meet her yet."

So we talked about other things, and it was a great relief when work was over for the day and I started to walk home. It would've been more pleasant if I would more practical shoes.

I did not go half a block when I heard a _clip clop_ of horse's hooves from behind. I looked over to see Duncan Carely smiling at me from the wagon seat.

"Come on up," he started, "I'll drive you home."

"No thank you, it's a lovely day," I protested. "I can walk just as easily." The wagon never looked so good, and I wanted to rest my feet.

"It's lovelier up here." he said. "Not to mention, it does get lonely up here and I only have one more delivery to make. Ride along and we both win, princess. I get to have some company and he you can see the town."

That last part seemed a good enough reason to do so, the first about I didn't like just the way he said it. I went over to the wagon and, with a hand from Duncan, I was hoisted on the wagon, but not the wagon seat next to him. He somehow managed to hoist me into his lap.

"Well, princess. If you really wanted to sit on my lap that badly, you should've said so," he said while smirking.

"Whatever Duncan, can I get to the wagon seat?" I asked.

He picked me up and set me on the wagon seat that was next to him. He gave the reins a shake, the horse startled.

"What did you do in Ohio?" he said to me, grinning at me still, "Your really tan."

"My mother was always complaining on how I was so white to where she didn't want to be seen with me so she would leave me locked out of our house for hours, sometimes days. When I got to be this tan she started complaining on how I was too dark," I told him.

"You know, princess, if you work all day in a shop like you are working in now, your fingers will wither," he went on.

I only laughed, "The work suits me, and I like being out of Trent's house during the day."

The horse trotted briskly along the winding road around the park, the tall trees, new with leaves, shading us as we rode.

"Down there is the pond," Duncan said, pointing. "We go ice-skating in the winter. Up ahead is the bandstand, beyond that is the town hall. I have a bag of cornmeal to deliver to the reverand, then I'll show you sea," he said winking at me when he said he would show me the sea.

Stangely, I enjoyed sitting next to the green mohawk handsome boy, who smelled of fresh perspiration, with apple on his breath. From the way he looked at me, I thought that he liked me having there by his side. Perhaps it was the cemetery we passed, I begin to think of Izzy Green, I asked Duncan, "Have you heard of a girl named Izzy Green?"

"Yes I have princess. Everyone knows about her. Why?"

"I'm just wondering if you had met her."

Duncan shook his hand, "No. She was older then me, sometimes I would see her coming from the butcher shop, or going inot the Bib and Bottle. She liked to stop there after work and get a pint, my brothers said. One of my brothers, Owen Carely, was in love with her and I think she loved him back. When she did commit suicide, Owen cried for a month. Back on the subject, I wasn't driving for my father then, I was still in school, getting into fights."

"Leshawna Morrison tells me that Trent's house is haunted."

"I've heard that," Duncan replied, "But I don't believe in ghosts."

"I don't either, but ..." I stopped debating if I should keep talking or just tell him to nevermind, but the look that he gave me was full of concern, so I continued, "It is strange living in a house where there are things one cannot talk about, and where the color is green forbidden."

I looked at Duncan to see that he wasn't smirking or smiling at me, "If I were you, I would worry more about your cousin Justin, then about the ghosts."

"Why?"

"There really isn't a reason," he said, "Just keep that in mind."

We had stopped at the reverend's house, I held the reins while Duncan carried the large bag of cornmeal to the back of the house, balancing on his broad shoulder, his green mohawk became lighter in the afternoon sun. Then we were off again, the horse going at a steady clip, until we had crossed the main north-south road in Whispers and were traveling along the narrow lane that skirted the sea.

It was then that I had gotten my first glimpse of the ocean, how I stared, for living in Ohio, I was used to the land about me in all directions, I had never looked out across a body of water to see no trees or hills on the other side.

"Oh my gosh, It is beautiful, Duncan!" I gasped, "Look how the water rushes and swells! I didn't know an ocean was so much a living thing!"

Then I got really quiet, I acted like a child, I was never allowed to act like a child. Not even when I was four. If I did I was serverly punished when I got home. Duncan noticed me biting my bottom lip and that I was about to cry. "Princess, what's wrong?"

I jolted my head up and said, "Nothing, just that I acted like a child and my parents wouldn't allow me to act like that."

"Why?"

"I brought shame to my family."

He stopped the wagon and looked me straight in the eye, "Never say that."

I was confused, "Why?"

"There is no way you could've brought shame to your family and," his face softed, "I like it when you act like a child." With that he started the wagon again. Then he said, "You should see the ocean when we are in a storm. There's a cove where the water is calm, and I like to fish there." He smiled then said, "You will come with me and bait my hook."

I faked gasped and said, "I would do no thing like that!" I was thinking _"Why not?" _

I didn't think much of anything accepting the ride with Duncan Carely, but when the horse and wagon pulled up to the iron gate of Trent's house, Uncle Trent was waiting for me, Gwen was standing behind him, looking anxious.

"What happen?" I asked, getting down from the wagon with the help of Duncan, who didn't try anything on me this time. Trent came forward to open the iron gate.

"You had us worried about you!" my uncle said. "Gwen thought you should have been here forty minutes ago, and when I went to inquire Katie Harper, she told me that you had left the shop at five."

"I'm truly sorry, Uncle!" I said. "I didn't think my lateness would cause you this much alarm."

I didn't realize it, but Duncan got off the wagon and said behind me, "This is going to kill you Trent but, I take full responsibily."

Trent and Gwen looked at each other, then Trent waved his hand in front of his eyes while Gwen was shouting, "WHAT HAPPEN TO THE OLD DUNCAN!?"

Duncan laughed at this, he put his head on my shoulder as he said, "I presuaded her to come for a ride, and we should've stopped here first and told Gwen were I was taking her. Who knows, I might have decided that today was the day I was going to take her to the ocean whether she liked it or not."

Uncle Trent signed, "I knew this new Duncan couldn't be real."

Gwen waved the wooden spoon she was holding in his direction. "You should have done that, Duncan Carely! Don't be going off with our Courtney without telling us."

He whispered in my ear so lightly that I barely heard him, "I told you that you didn't bring your family shame." He replied in his usual voice as I just now noticed that his arms were around my waist and was pressing my back against his chest, "Well, since the old Duncan is retired for the next seconds, I may as well say this. I may be driving her home again soon, so I am telling you now." He was bold as brass and Trent had to smile.

"Can you let Courtney go?" Trent asked, smiling.

Duncan let me go and I said a good-bye to the troublemaker and went in the house, secretly glad that my uncle was worried about my welfare. I started up to my room when Gwen stopped me on the landing, "Trent was in a terrible state of mind, Courtney. He was scared that something dreadful had happen to you."

"Is the reason for this is what happen to Izzy Green?" I whispered back.

"I think so. Please, try not to worry him like that again."

"If I am late again. it will be becasue I am riding with Duncan," I said. Then laughing, "I am not planning on taking my own life. Please don't worry one minute about it."

It didn't comfort her, through. "Other things could happen," she said darkly. "Just be watchful, child."

My body felt chilled just like a window was left ajar, or a sudden draft had passed me on the stairs.

When Gwen had gone back to the kitchen, I waited until I heard the movements of the pots and pans, I went to the spare bedroom and sat down on the edge of Izzy Green's bed, staring at the dorr to the attic.

_"Why did she do it? She had loved someone who loved her back. How did she do it?" _I wondered. I was thinking about, if I wanted too, what would I use to get the deed done. Drawn to those bloodstain stairs, I reached for the door handle and once again, turned the knob.

Instantly, I jerked backwards, my hands over my mouth. There on the steps, the blood-soaked steps, lay a girl's white glove.

I could only sit and stare, my temples throbbing with fright. The glove was about the size of my own hand, certainly not large enough for Gwen. I know postively that it had not been there when I was in the attic last time.

I steeled myself and, with trembling fingers, leaned forward and picked it up. Then I got my second shock for that day, there was something I didn't notice before---deep cuts etched clearly on the wood of the step. The cuts were that of a cleaver.

In terror, I tossed the glove back on the attic stairs, closed the door, and then fled into my bedroom. Somone, I concluded, was playing an early April's Fool Day prank on me. I vowed to put the death of Izzy Green out of my mind. The deed was done three years before. It didn't do no good, thinking about it now. Let Trent and Gwen worry if they must, but it doesn't have too concern me.

When I was finally calmed, I set about selecting my clothes for the following day. I'd noticed that both Katie and Leshawna dressed with care,their jewelry perfectly chosen. I decided that I too would come to work each day dressed in my best.

I just turned from the closet with a skirt upon my arm when, out of the corner of my eye, i saw something dart across the floor and under my dresser. I whirled around quickly, but I was too late to see what it was.

Without hestation, I tokk the mousetrap out of my closet and placed it under my dresser instead.

Dinner went as usual, with Justin having much to say expect that there were fine horses running at the racetrack, and Gwen inquiring whether or not we like her pudding. I was scared that I would get lecture about my ride with Duncan Carely, but it was not mentioned, after dinner, when the dishes and were washed and put away, I went to the parlor and played some songs for Trent, being careful not to inclue "Spingfield Mountain" among them.

As the doors open and a breeze blew through the parlor, I was cold so I felt that I needed a wrap. I went upstairs and just turned down the hall when I heard a soft oath from within my room **(GASP!)** and a moment later, my mousetrap came sliding out my door, **(The mousetrap is the ghost 0_o) **Imagine my surprise when Cousin Justin appeared next and, as startled to see me as I was to see him, he made a quick apology and strode quickly down the hall to his own room. **(Cousin Justin made the mousetrap haunted!) **I grabbed my shawl and went into the garden to consider the situation, trying to think what can possiblely be the reason Justin would have to put his hand beneath my dresser. I remembered the question he asked about my family's finances --his suspicion was that I had come with a modest fortune I had hidden in my room -- and began to suspect that my cousin was a thief, that he could only have been searching to where I had hidden it.

I wondered if Gwen suspected that too, for she came out to walk with me and said, "About your wages, sweetie. What will you do with the money you earn from the hat shop? It would be best, I think, for you to have a safe place to keep it."

"I haven't made that much yet, Gwen, but when I do, I think, I will keep it in my desk," I said.

"You may do with it as you wish," she told me, "but I suggest, for you safety, that you give it either to me or Trent to put away for you. Of course, you can have it anytime you feel like it."

"I think I will do that," I promised, for I knew that she knew Justin better then I did.

Justin was in la-la land for the rest of the evening. He didn't say a word at all to me by the way of explanation, nor did he bed me a good night when he left the house to go to his own lodgings.

I went to sleep early, wanting to be at the shop on time, the next morning, but awoke in the night not sure of the time. I sensed that someone was in my room with me, however, and in my half-awake state, thought that it was morning -- that I had overslep, and Gwen was here to fetch me.

I lay there, waiting for her voice, when something touched my forehead.

"Yes?" I said sleepily. And then, turning slightly, I opened my eyes and found myself staring into the darkness, "Yes?" I said again,

Soon, I was fully awake, it was the middle of the night and I could not make anything out expect for the darkness.

"Who is it?" I whispered and scared that it was Justin, I screamed.

For a moment nothing happen. Then I heard a thump across the hall, followed by another, doors opening, then footsteps. Finally, with her nightcap on her head, messed up, Gwen came into my room with a candle, followed by Trent.

I was rapidly breathing, I couldn't talk. I lay curled into the ball against my headboard, blankets around me, cowering like a small animal that was soon going to be lunch for a bigger more scary animal.

"Oh dear, child, what is it?" Gwen cried rushing over, "What's matter?"

I looked about the room in all directions, I could see nothing. My first thought was to tell them I had suspected someone to be in my room, but if I did, Uncle Trent would insist on checking it out --- under my bed, in my closet...he might even look inside my suitcase, just in case someone was hiding there, I wouldn't allow that.

"It...it was only a dream," I said, "I'm sorry that I have woken you up."

"Are you sure?" Trent asked.

"Yes, I've...I've had these dreams from time to time since my parents died. They come and go." I said.

"Oh, I know what you are talking about!" Gwen said. "After my Ezekiel died, I had the same. You go back to bed, dear. I'll leave the candle burning on your dresser."

They left, but I didn't dare close my eyes. Fear was overpowered by anger. Someone was in my room, I was sure of it. I suspected it was Justin. It would an easy task for him to come in during the night, unknown to us, and to slip out again as quickly as he came. His lurking about, the glove upon the stairs, and now this --- the touch of my forehead in the dead of night. He had not harm me, but he could be trying to drive me insane, to insure that I would not receive the inhertience that he felt was his. I prefer to believe that he was trying to dislodge me of a reason than to believe that my mind was, indeed, beginning to fail. If Justin was behind this, I told myself, he would be ready to fight me.

I got up, taking the candle with me, I went downstairs to the kitchen. Opening one drawer, then another, my fingers closed at last around a butcher knife. I took it upstairs and placed it in my bedside table.

**Sorry, I had mountain dew when I added the words in Bold. Do you think I pick the right characters for each person? Read and review.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors Note: I will start my new story, upload a chapter of Izzy Green (No kidding) and a chapter of The Island Dance. I am thinking about haveing it like this.**

**John Doe: Hi everyone to TDI version of Izzy Green**

**Jane Doe: Snowleopardlover doesn't own TDI or Jade Green**

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

Strangely enough, I had slept, convinced that I had been dreaming or, if it was Justin and he was still about, he wouldn't take the chance awakening the household a second time with my screams. I vowed to keep the knife there in my room with me.

Of that week, until the rain began on Friday, I took my breakfast outside in the garden and managed to be reading a boook whenever Justin arrived for his morning coffee, so he was forced to start conservation with Gwen, and I, when he asked me a question, answered kindly enough and then went on with my reading.

I started to become more unsettles, then the following week another strange occurence. I took a very mild stomach flu, and I excused myself from the parlor after dinner and went to bed. I was lying there in the darkness, completely awake with my eyes closed. I felt something like fingers brush across my lips.

Gasping, I sat up, searching the room for the intruder, and reached for the knife in my bedside drawer. No one was there, my room was empty, and I was shocked to hear my cousin's voice downstairs, arguing again with his father. _Was _I going mad, then -- hearing things, seeing things, and now feeling things that didn't exist? Tears spang to my eyes becasue if I did lost my reason then I will lose it all.

There was a knock on my window, which made me jumped. I turned around towards the window and open it. "Duncan come on in." I said.

He crawls into her room and looks at her, "How are you feelin?"

"Sick, who told you?" I replied.

He came closer to me and picked me up, bridal style, and laid me on my bed, "Princess, get some sleep. You need to get feeling better."

I slowly began to drift off into sleep, the last thing I rememeber was him stroking my hair.

The next day, Duncan wasn't there. I was still sick that day, but after the that day, I was determined to go to the hat shop. Trent called Duncan to come around and drive me there that I way I wouldn't tire myself.

"It's good to see you out in the sun again. I missed you ever since you was ill," Duncan said as we started off.

"I'm quite fine right now," I told him.

"I'm glad, I don't feel like climbing up that tree today, as of now," he said and I was surprised on how much it had cheered me to hear him say it.

He took the long way around just to show me the fishermen standing out in the surf, waiting for their prey. "You will be coming to the cove with me sometime when the weather is hot," he said, "You will like it."

"I don't know, I might like it," I said and wondered later, when he let me off at the shop, whether I had only imagined it or if he did draw shapes on my hand while he helped me safety to the ground.

I was wearing a skirt of blue silk with a shirtwaist of the same color, Katie and Leshawna commented on my clothing.

"OMG! SADIE COME HERE!" Katie yelled.

A girl who was slightly tubby, but looked almost identical to Katie, "OMG YOU ARE SO CUTE!"

"I KNOW RIGHT!"

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE" they both yelled.

"My name is Sadie and you must be Courtney. You do a fine job here Katie tells me. Oh no, sorry Katie, I got to go. I have a very important meeting,'' Sadie said disappointed.

"Aw, okay. Have fun." Katie said, "Blue is totally your color. Blue and green are like totally your colors."

I thanked them for their remarks, happy that, if I did indeed look my best, I had appeared so in front of Duncan Carely. **(I read this book like five times. I'm just now noticing how many times they say his last name. =P) **

"Is he your new boyfriend?" Leshawna asked, as together we unpacked a package of tulle in the back room.

My cheeks turned red, "He's a good friend of mine who has been very kind to me. Not to mention he also gets me in trouble." I told her politle, Leshawna, smiling, poked me in the ribs, and then we both broke into laughter.

"Truly, through," said Leshawna, "blue does become you, but I have not seen you in green."

I lowered my eyes and voice, "It is forbidden."

"What?"

"The color green is not allowed in the Sparrow house. It was the condition given to me for my coming."

Leshawna stopped her work and stared at me with large dark eyes. "This must be becasue of _her_!" she instisted. "Izzy Green! Green was _her _favorite color, and she wore it all the time."

"That's what I had suspected," I said. "Perhaps it reminds my uncle too much of her."

Leshawna shock her head, " I don't think that's it at all." She walked to the doorway to check on the whereabouts of Katie, seeing with two customers over the fitting table, she came back to me and whispered, "When one of our customers, Mrs. Tillis, died young -- her dress caught on fire --- her husband married again within one month of her burial. He had given away all that had belonged to her expect for her favorite bonnet, which he had loved her to wear it. Then the new bride took to wearing it, and before long, they say that the house was shaken with moans and sighs, until himself got rid of the hat."

"Oh, Leshawna, that must be gossip"

She shook her head again and lowered her voice to a whisper. "They say that when someone dies a violent death, the ghost might appear at the place or dwelling, drawn by a favorite prossession of the one who has died. A toy, for example, in the case of a child, or the familiar bed of an old man, or the bridal veil of a young woman. The favorite thing of Izzy Greenm we all knew was a color."

My body grer chills at her words, remembering the hand that had twice brushedmy face as I tried to sleep in my uncle's house. Yet, I reminded myself, that I was not sleeping in Izzy Green's bed, for she had slept in the small square room. My heart told me, if the ghost of Izzy Green was about, it had been attracted to my room by the color green, the frame on my mother's picture. Perhaps my uncle had heard the saying that Leshawna had related to me, and would take no chance of summoning the ghost.

"You are still looking a little ill," Leshawna said to me, "You sure you should have come back to work so soon?"

"I am quite well enough to work," I told her, "Suppose we finish unpacking this box, and then I can practice on my stitching."

My mind was thinking too fast for me to catch up, however, that I could scare think of anything else that afternoon. Trent didn't seem like a man to superstition. Would he go to such lengths to ward off even the possibilty of a ghost? All I could conclude was that the ghost of Izzy Green was perhaps no stranger to the household, and it was for this reason that the house had been cleared of any reminder of her. Every reminder, save the blood on the attic stairs, which Gwen didn't have much eagerness to ever look at again.

"No, No, No Courtney, I asked for the burgundy trim, "I heard Katie saying, and I apologized profusely, determined to keep my mind upon my work, whatever should happen back at the Sparrow house.

When I got home that afternoon, Gwen insisted I should rest, but I concenvied her to let me walk in the garden. The clouds was covering the sky up, the sun was no where to be seen, the air was warm, the vegetables and flowers were taking on new buds and blossoms, and the breeze had a feel of summer that assures me I was better off walking about here and than in lying on my bed in my room. The old gardener wordlessly pointed out a bush that was beginning to flower, and the scent was so sweet that I was soothed by its fragence only.

Too many things were troubling me, however, to forget my cares entirely. For one, I don't know how to respond to Justin anymore. When he arrives for dinner that evening, I studied him across the creamed chicken, and, noticing, he gave me a half smile that was more disquieting than comforting. I was so concivend that it was he who had been on my room, touching me in my bed, that I had screamed for Gwen. Yet, I was quite sure now that I was mistaken. One second he seemed to tease me like a fond brother, and then he would say something almost rude.

_"Maybe, this is the way of men and brothers," _I thought. What would I know of their behavior, being an only child myself?" Wasn't it right within a family that everyone should speak their minds freely, for if one cannot say what is in one's heart at the table, where then he can express himself? The way his eyes sought out my body, however --- the way his fingers had traced the buttons of my bodice --- and Duncan's admontitions to be watchful of Justin ... these all played upon my mind. I didn't feel the trust no one should have toward a brother.

Yet, I stayed quite happy at mealtime, regaling my new family with stories of customers that came in the hat shop, the white poodle that had eaten its mistress's bonnet and so forth.

Gwen laughed, she was glad for some happiness, I fancied over dinner, and I even saw a bemused smile on Trent's face. Justin, for his part, told of going to the barber shop to have his hair trimmed, and there was a young boy having his curls removed for the very first time. He had pointed to his hair that was on the ground, said Justin, and wept,"Look at them! They are now dead!"

We laughed again, and as I went upstairs later, I wondered if I was wrong in all things about my family. Once in my room, an uneasiness took power of me, and I felt chilly despite the warmth of the evening. I tried sitting by the window to recapture the pleasure I had felt in the garden that afternoon, yet I found myself turning my head repeatly over ny shoulder, sensing an unseen presence in the room. I don't know how I knew, for I heard nothing remarkable, felt no touch.

_"I shall take a bath," _I thought, _"Perhaps that will clam me down." _This time as I turned to get up, I gasped in horror, and my breath stopped. There on my rug, lay a hand, a human hand. A girl's right hand, detached from the arm and body.

I slid back on the window seat until I was pressed against the glass, my hands covering my mouth. I tried to scream, but my breath was gone and no sound came from my throat. I could only stare at the ghostly hand, the limp,white fingers, the delicate wrist, and then the jagged stump on which dried blood was visible, the boken connection of muscle and bone and skin ...

The terrible thing of all was that the fingers suddenly began to move, the palm to lift, until it was standing upright like some strange primordial creature.

Drawing my feet beside me, I sat choking, shaking, as the fingers scrabbled fast along the floor, and the hand disappeared into the darkness beneath my bed.


	11. Chapter 11

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

I didn't make a single move, or uttered a sound, my body was frozen to the chair.

Should I run to the door? I wondered. I imagubed myself rushing downstairs to the parlor with an account of what I had just seen. Would anyone believe me? What did lay under my bed? The very body of the Izzy, could be? My teeth were chattering so violently tat U was forced to hold my jaws to stop them.

As the minutes went by and nothing happen, I figured that I should - I _must_ -- gain the courage that was the enough to look under the bed itself before I summoned Trent and Gwen. If the dead body of Izzy be there, I must warn them, the shock, if it was close claiming my sanity, might cost those two dear people their lives. I sat there watching the floor, waiting and waiting for the hand to show itself again. There was no noise, no movement.

Breathing rapidly, a trickle of sweat was running down the middle of my back, despite my chill, I slowly leaned down and picked up a corner of the bedspread, bent over until I could see beneath the bed frame. It was dark under the bed, I stared into the darkness, looking for the sign of the whilte fingers, but I didn't see nothing.

What should I do? Whom should I tell? If it was indeed a ghostly hand belonging to Izzy Green, Trent would ask, _"You didn't bring anything green into the house, did you?" _I would have to admit my guilt and he would turned me out of his house, so I was trapped.

I got the nerve to light my candle and kneel beside my bed, the light from the candle was casting a yellow glow on the floor. The space beneath my bed was empty, the hand was gone. Next thing I knew was that I was hearing voices from outside.

"Duncan, I can't climb any more!" a kid which voice sounded familiar.

"Aw, thats okay. Izzy would be disappointed," Duncan replied as he knocked on my window.

I opened the window while the kid was screaming, "Izzy would have never had me do this!"

Duncan climbed into my room and I said, "Maybe I should leave the window open for you to come in."

"That would be the best option."

"Duncan don't leave me here alone!" the kid cried.

Duncan leaned out the window, "Come on Owen! You can do it!"

I can hear the kid panting, "Duncan I can't! I need food!"

"Chicken!"

I hissed, "Duncan, that's not nice."

He leaned away from the window and stared at me, "Well, he wants to meet you so he needs to come up here."

I rolled my eyes as I leaned over the window and I looked down at the kid. He looked up at me and all of a sudden his eyes were glisting, "IT"S YOU!" he shouted.

Duncan grabbed my waist and pulled me away from the window as the kid came scambling up the tree and into my room. "You know her Owen?"

"Not really, but you the time I took the trip to Iowa where I took a train," so called Owen said.

"Yes, you kept talking about the sweet girl who gave you sweets."

"This is her! So your princess? I'm Owen. Duncan's older brother."

"I'm Courtney. It's been a while." I replied trying to breath, Duncan was pressing my back towards his chest so hard I could barely breath.

"Yes, it has. This is where Izzy Green lived. You know Trent?"

"He's my uncle."

"Oh," Owen said.

Duncan grabbed a chocolate bar from his pocket and threw it out the window, which Owen jumped out the window trying to save the chocolate bar, "Sorry about that princess. He was taking your attention from me," he said while smirking.

"How can he? I can barely breath on how tight who are holding me," I said smiling.

He turned me around and looked me in the eye, "Duh, I don't want you running to him."

I raised an eyebrow at him, "Didn't you say he was in love with Izzy?"

"I did, didn't I," he said putting his face inches away from me.

Then next thing I knew there was footsteps coming towards me room, "I'll guess I will talk to you later, princess," he whispered as he jumped out the window.

I closed the window leaving it open slightly as I quickly went to bed, faking sleep. While I was faking sleep, thoughts were going through my mind. How was I supposed to live here? How could I sleep? To mention what I had seen to anyone at all, even Leshawna Morrison, might see me locked up as a madwoman, like my mother, pitied and forgotten. Beneath this worry was even greater that perhaps there had been no hand at all, and my mind, like my mother's, betrayed me.

By morning, I didn't sleep more then a few minutes, and I went down to breakfast groggy, my eyes puffy and red. Justin seemed amused at my discomfort.

"What's wrong Orphan? You look like a wreck!" he said. "Is something wrong with your bed, then?"

"No, I was restless. Is that illegal?" I said, "I'm sure I will sleep better tonight."

Gwen studied me over the porridge. "You shall, indeed, or I'll not have you working at the hat shop," she declared. "There's no need for it! If the work is too much for you, that will be that!"

This bothered me, for I wanted to have that job, I would have my own spending money. I wanted to be friends with Leshawna, and do other things besides sit at home, no matter how fond I was of Gwen. My lack of sleep and worry upset me even more, for if I don't do a good job for Katie, she would let me go.

I struggled through the morning as best as I could, and I was very disappointed at lunchtime when it was raining and Leshawna and I couldn't sit on the bench outdoors in the bright warm sun.

"Tell you what," Leshawna said, "I will go next door and get our lunch, and we'll eat them back here. Katie goes to the bank of Fridays, so we will have this place to ourselves. We can be the grandest ladies coming here to purchase bonnets, and try on every hat in the shop if we like."

I grinned at her plan in spite of myself, and was quite ready to sit down when she returned. We spread a cloth on a table in the back room, turned the sign at the window from open to close so that customers won't interrupte our lunch, then settled down to eat and talk while rain streamed down the windows and beat on the roof.

"Great Zeus of thunder, it's a pretty hard storm!" Leshawna declared looking out the window as she ate, "Almost looks like a hurricane. We see plenty of thise here in Whispers. Wouldn't mind a bit if I don't have to see another one in my life."

We finished our lunch and debated whether to go back to the Bib and Bottle for biscuits and soda, when we decided it was very bad weather to be walking out in it.

"Katie is probably stranded at the bank with she decided to go out in this weather, she will ruin her silk." Leshawna stated. "Or, we can tell ghost stories."

"I don't thinks so," I told her, "I have enough trouble sleeping in Trent's house."

"Why?" Leshawna asked with a grin, "Do you hear moans and rattling chains?"

"No I hear nothing like that."

"Cries and whispers?"

"Not that either," then suddenly I asked, "Leshawna, do you know why Izzy Green killed herself? Did anyone find out?"

Leshawna shook her head and brushed the brumbs from her dress. "She didn't leave a nother, she didn't tell any sercrets. It was the greatest shock, they say, to Gwen, as she expected nothing of the sort from her."

"Did...did anyone ever tell you how she took her life? Was it poison?" I was thinking of the words to "Springfield Mountain," her favorite song.

This is the point where Leshawna lowered her voice ever through we were the only two in the shop, "That is the strangest part of the puzzle, and the last way I would kill myself in this world."

"How?"

She bled to death. Cut her own hand off."

I grabbed my stomach.

"Terrible, isn't it? They say that she bled all over the floor." Then, looking at me, she cried, "Courtney, even through your really tan, you are pale as cream! I shouldn't have told you! You have to live there, after all."

"No, no, no. It's all right," I assured her. "It's something that I feel like I need to know anyway."

While I was saying that, my fingers and toes became frozen.

I wanted to get myself busy as soon as possible, so I began my afternoon's work. Katie came in at last and said that she had meet Duncan and his brother Owen, at the livery stable and that Duncan will come for me at five o'clock, with an umbrella to sheild me, and I was very glad to hear it.

The day was finally over, however, I climbed in the wagon, the umbrella, through grey clouds swirled overhead, didn't need to be used. I was so nervous, throughm that everything seemed to be a bad sign of bad luck to me.

"Duncan," I said, feeling sick, "is it okay if I ask a favor of you or a couple?"

"Sure, anything for you princess," he said smirking.

"Can you take me to Owen, I need to ask him a question."

"What kind of question?"

"A question about Izzy Green," I lied.

"Okay."

He took me to the livery stable and I automatically saw Owen. "Good evening Owen." I said.

"Courtney, hi. What up?"

"Nothing much just need to ask you a question."

"What's that?"

"When is Duncan's birthday?"

"Funny you should ask that becasue today is his birthday and Justin doesn't like it when anyone gives Duncan a present."

"Oh, If Duncan asks you what I asked you, can you tell him that I asked a question about Izzy Green?"

"Yea of course."

"Thanks," with that I walked over to the wagon and Duncan helped me up there.

"Can I ask another favor of you Duncan?" I said as I had my head lowered,

"Like I said before princess, anything to serve you and what's wrong?"

"A lot is on my mind right now and in half hour time, meet me in the back of the garden by the alley, there is something I want to give you."

He put his face under mine and with a surprised smile, "How can I refuse a free gift?" he asked

"Promise you will come!" I begged, tears were beginning to form at my eyes.

This time he looked at me strangely, "Of course. What's wrong Courtney?"

I tried to be happy, "Nothing!" I said with a small smile, "Is it illegal for me to give you a gift for driving me home."

He let me out at Trent's gate, I hurried up the walk and steps to the door. Once inside, I called to Gwen, telling her that I would have my tea with her shortly, then I ran upstairs.

Every single time, I opened my closet, I did so now with great trepidation, and as I put my hand upon the knob, I braced myself for what I might see. My room was no longer a safe retreat, a refuge from the cares of the day, if I was too stay in Whispers, this cannot continue. I knew I must get rid of the picture frame my mother had given me, no matter how dear it was too me, so that I can get peace in Trent's house.

I took a deep breath and turned the doorknob, my eyes on the floor of the closet, searching for the severed hand. Nothing seemed amiss, and -- my courage bolstered -- I crawled to the back of the closet beneath the eaves and opened the lid to my suitcase.

All appeared as it should be, and I decided it was time to remove my summer clothes. I set to work, lifting them out one by one and placing them on the floor next to me. The framed photo was just as I had left it, facedown on the bottom of the trunk.

Picking it up in one hand, my dressed in the other, I backed out of the closet and laid my clothes over a chair. Then I wiped the frame on my skirt and, turning the photo around, scream was backed up in my throat. For I saw not the gentle face of my mother, but the face of a stranger, a girl my own age in a cotton dress, her eyes were set in a saucy stare.

I threw the picture onto the bed in fright, one hand on my chest. Izzy Green! It had to be her. She had taken over my frame, my trunk, my room, and for all I knew, my mind. I didn't know when this nightmare will end.

Wrapping my arms around my body, I leaned against the wall, trembling. However, I remembered that Duncan was waiting for me at the back of the garden, I gathered my wits and went over to retrieve the frame and remove the photograph within. I looked at it again and my mother's face was back in the picture.

My breath came in short gasps. I slipped the picture of my mother in the suitcase and I found a picture of me when I was ten. It wasn't at all a good likeness, but it was the only thing that would fit. I put in in the frame. Running one finger lovingly over the green silk, I wrapped the framed picture in tissue and went downstairs.

"Gwen, I'm going out to the back of the garden near the alley to give something to Duncan. The reason why it's back there is becasue I don't want Cousin Justin to know about it," I cried.

"Did his brother tell you that today was his birthday?"

"Yes."

"Okay then I can understand the meeting. Justin doesn't like it when Duncan gets presents and he doesn't."

I walked outside in the garden which was stretched a long way back, ending at the alley, and I began to hurry, anxious to get rid of the frame that had casue me so much trouble. I had never thought that I would part with the gift my mother had given me to that I haven't sold, but I knew I could not live with the ghostly hand in my house. The longer I hold the frame, the more desperately I wanted to get rid of it, and soon I began to run, unmindful to the puddles, slipping and sliding along the muddy path in the maze of hedges, until I came to a corner and turning swiftly, ran right into my cousin Justin.

**Does Courtney actually come back in TDA? I HAVE TO KNOW OR ELSE I WON"T WATCH IT!**


	12. Chapter 12

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

He caught my wrists and hold me there while I tried desperately with my other hand to keep the package hidden behind me.

"Aha!" he cried, his eyes were laughing, "Where is out orphan be off to?" he spinned me around I was facing him. "See? Your cheeks are very pink, you must be going to meet a boyfriend."

"I have no boyfriend," I told him. "I was going for a walk in the gardne."

Justin pulled me closer, through I bid my feet to stay.

"That wasn't a walk, Orphan, that was a run!" he said. "How eager you are! If you have no boyfriend, then why don't you give a kiss to your cousin?"

"No Justin!" I said, trying to pull away from him. "Please ..."

His grip tightened more on my hand as through to push me down, yet I gave a little cry, "No! Stop!" and swung at him lightly with the picture frame.

Footsteps were coming up the path from the alley, then Duncan's voice: "Courtney? Where are you? What's wrong?"

Automatically, Justin released my hand.

"Aha!" he cried again. "You _were _going to meet a boyfriend. What do you have there? My family's silver? Robbing your Uncle Trent behind his ack?"

"No!" I cried, just as Duncan came around the bushes.

Justin gave us a scornful look and straighted uo. "Good day," he said stingy to Duncan, and went quickly up the path to the house. I didn't know what he would tell my uncle.

I grabbed Duncan's hand and hurried on down to the alley that we wouldn't be overheard.

"What happen?" he asked me, "Princess, please tell me what's wrong?"

I tried to ignore it, "It was only Justin being Justin," I told him. Then, trying to put a natural face on a day that was unnatural to the extreme, I presented him the gift, "I kind of lied to you."

Puzzled, he stared at it and then at me, he looked at the present again and he slowly unwrapped the tissue. After what had taken place in my bedroom, I didn't know what he would see when he examined the freame, but there was my photograph at ten years old, just as I had wrapped it.

He stared at hard as the color rose in my cheeks. He finally asked, "Princess, what did you lie to me about and is this you?"

"I asked Owen when your birthday was and yes," I said feeling awkard. "It ...it's all I have just now. All that would fit the frame."

I stopped talking, the more words that came out of my mouth, the more ridiculous they sounded, but parting the frame itself gave me the greatest distress. I could scarely let it go. The next thing I knew I was running back towards the house. Too confused and embarrassed to decribe any of it. I turned and fled back up the path like a silly child, _"I'm acting like a child again. Mother were are you when I need you?" _I thought. I ran in Gwen's kitchen and my cheeks became aflame.

"Oh my, what is this?" she asked, "Have you taken a fever, child?"

To make my day even more perfect, she was pouring tea for Justin, who sat solemnly at the table, watching me as I took my seat.

"She's a slut, Gwen," he said. "Here, there ... meeting young men at the back of the garden."

Gwen looked mad at Justin, her face went to red then she said, "I knew what she was doing. Something you wouldn't have argeed to you. She was given Duncan Carely his birthday present."

"Yea, but in the back of the garden, doesn't that seem suspious?"

Gwen rollen her eyes and said, "Let's have no more meetings at the back of the garden, sweetie. Let him sit in the parlor like the way young men are supposed to do when they come asking for marriage," I raised my eyebrow at this as she continued, "To meet him in the alley will only make people talk, and" -- she paused, "we _all _know how reps can be ruined by talk," she said looking directly at Justin.

He had his mouth shut, I was too gloomy to take tea any longer, claiming I had a headache, went upstairs.

As I passed the doorway to Izzy Green's old bedroom, I stopped, staring hard at the attic door until I gathered my courage. I walked in the room swiftly, I jerked open the door and the glove was gone, the stairs were empty minus the bloodstain.

Back in my room, I locked the window, just in case Duncan decided to pay me a visit, I laid down on my bed and mulled over all that had happen. With Justin about, he could well have put the glove on the attic stairs for me to find, and could have easily have taken it away. That didn't explain the hand, of course -- the ghostly hand. At last I had rid the house of my mother's picture frame, adn were I to be asked now, I can truly say that there was nothing green in my processions.

As my body relaxed, I listened to the sounds around me -- Gwen's voice far off in the kitchen, the sound of a carriage out on the street, the twitterings of birds, no sound out of my closet, pebbles being thrown at my window.

_"Wait, pebbles being thrown at my window?" _I looked over to see a pebble hit the glass on my window. _"Arg, I hate it when he does that." _I went over to the window and unlocked it, I opened it for him to come in which he did without hestitation.

"Hello princess," he smirked at me.

I just rolled my eyes, not even bothering to reply.

"Princess, talk to me!" he begged.

"Why do you want to talk to me?" I asked as I raised my eyebrow.

"Well," he decided to sit on my bed, " why wouldn't I?"

I shook my head, "Must I tell you what happen ten minutes ago?"

I didn't realize how close I was to my bed becasue the next thing I knew was that I was sitting on his lap, he had a hold of my waist. Next thing we know, we heard footsteps again.

Duncan signed, "One of these days, I didn't get a chance to say thank you."

He made sure that I was sitting at the bed before he got up and left, his head popped in and said, "Don't lock your window ever again! It's a pain in the butt to throw rocks at your window."

"I had to laugh at this, "Okay."

At dinnerI felt better, and looked forward to the roasted turkey that Gwen had set before us. I was telling Trent about how dreadfully it had rained at lunchtime., and how I went without an umbrella ... again.

I was surprised to hear Cousin Justin interrupt me to say, "You need to watch her, Father. She'll go out of this house with more than an umbrella. It wouldn't surprised me a bit if she was taking away my silver."

"Justin!" Gwen yelled.

I was stunned to reply.

Trent put down his wineglass, "On what do you base that accusation Justin? And, when did my silver became yours?"

"When I was born and I caught her running through the garden toward the alley this afternoon, Father. She was looking very guilty, very flushed, and she had a parcel hidden in her skirt. I tried to question her, but she broke away and ran to meet Duncan Carely. When she returned, she came empty-handed."

I was close to tears, yet I was so mad. All I could say was: "Are you accusing me of stealing sir? Am I the one who has already claim to the family silver while my Uncle Trent is very much alive? I want my uncle to be alive. I think you want him dead. Do you plan on murdering him?" I said directly looking at Justin, my voice was shaking.

He glared at me while Trent and Gwen's mouths were wide open at my comment. Justin spoke, "I didn't say you was Cousin. I said you bear watching, that's all. Why would I want to kill my father?"

Gwen looked at him sternly, "Becasue you just said that she was stealing 'your sliver' when Mr. Sparrow is still alive. Courtney what you gave to Duncan is your business, especially since it's his birthday but--"

"It was a picture," I blurted out, "A picture of me. Nothing more."

"You gave him, your picture, Courtney?" inquired Gwen more surprised then angry," Well now!" she smiled and the next thing I knew she was hugging me, "Courtney is falling in love! Happy Day!"

Trent's voice took over the table, "You spoke correctly Gwen," she blushed at that statement, "It is Courtney's business, not ours, and they do bring a point up about the silver. I don't want to hear any more about your suspions Justin. Justin, since you, yourself, profess to ignore gossip, I trust you will not supply us with any more more at the table in the future."

Justin's expressed no emotion, but I was most surprised and grateful to hear Trent take me part. I had been noticing lately a small change in him -- a smile that brighted his face whenever I entered the room. Little inquires about now and them, my health, my comfort, and my likes and my dislikes. I could tell that he looked forward to the parlor after dinner when I played for him and some of his favorite songs, the setting sun coming through the stained-glass panel above the side window, making a rainbow of color on the wall.

"Courtney, can I request something," Trent asked as soon as Justin had left that evening.

"Of course," I replied.

"Can you play the piano and sing the lyrics to a son on page ten?"

I went to page ten to find the song that he had made to Gwen. I smiled at this.

"This song is for our cook, Mrs. Gwen Hasting." I started.

Gwen's eyes went open as I started playing and singing,

_Ooh  
It's something about  
Just something about  
The way she moved  
I can't figure it out  
There's something  
About her  
(About her)  
Say ooh  
There's something  
About kinda women  
That want you  
But don't need you  
Hey  
I can't figure it out  
There's something  
About her  
Cuz she walk like a boss  
Talk like a boss  
Manicured nalis  
Just sent  
The pedicure off  
She's fly effortlessly  
Cuz she move like a boss  
Do what a boss  
Do  
She got me thinking  
About getting involved  
That's the kinda girl  
I need_

She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Won't you come  
And spend a little time  
She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Ooh  
The way you shine  
Miss independent

Hey, yeah, yeah  
Yeah, yeah, yeah  
Yeahhh, mmm  
Ooh  
There's something  
About kinda woman  
That can do  
It for herself  
I look at her  
And it makes me proud  
There's something  
About her  
There something  
Ooh  
So sexy  
About the kinda women  
That don't even  
Need my help  
She says she got it  
She got it  
No doubt  
There's something  
About her  
Cuz she work  
Like the boss  
Play like the boss  
Car and a crib  
She about  
To pay em both off  
And her bills  
Are paid on time  
She made for a boss  
Soley a boss  
Anything less  
She's telling em  
To get lost  
That's the girl  
That on my mind

She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Won't you come  
And spend  
A little time  
She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Ooh  
The way you shine  
Miss independent

Yeah, yeahhh

Her favourite thing  
Is to say  
Don't worry I got it  
And everything she got  
Best believe  
She bought it  
She gon steal my heart  
Ain't no doubt about it  
Girl  
Your everything I need  
Said your everything  
I need

She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Wont you come  
And spend a little time  
She got her own thing  
That's why I love her  
Miss independent  
Ooh the way you shine  
Miss independent  
That's why I love her

I then said, "This song was from Trent Sparrow."

Gwen was breaking down in tears as I excused myself to go to bed.

The air was warm --too warm, almost for a sheet -- and I lay in my gown with my feet being the only lightly covered. Just like this afternoon, I listened for any sound at all in my room --scratching, scurrying, rustles, or creaks.

There was nothing at all, and I thought what a mercy it would be, in ridding the Sparrow house of green, I was ridding of Izzy Green. What a surprise it would be, if Gwen and Trent got together.

I tried not to think of Justin and how I had angered him this afternoon by refusing his kiss. How he, in turn, made such terrible accustations about me in front of his father and Gwen. It seemed we should always be enemies.

I soon found myself going to sleep, unfortuntly, I was half-awake once or twice, the sleep, the bed, the pillow all felt so comfortable that I gave myself up.

Some time in the night, once or twice, I was waken by the sound of music.

Could I be dreaming? I wondered, where there revelers outside my window, coming home from a party? Or was it morning already, with Gwen singing as she made biscuits, she has a beautiful singing voice.

As I became more awka, I realized that it wasn't a voice at all but rather a simple melody, and the words to the tune ran through my head:

_Too roo de nay, too roo de noo._

_Too roo de nat, too roo de noo._

_**I need a Canada Christmas food dish I can make for school, any ideas? I will try and update The Island Dance soon. Read and Review I do not own Miss Indepent.**_

~Snowleopardlover~


	13. Chapter 13

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

My body became frozen upon hearing that song that I began to shake most violently. It wasn't coming from my closet, or my room, but somewhere far in the house. Scared as I was, I had to know.

I got out of bed, lighting a candle, carried it the door.

_"Too roo de nay, too roo de noo ..." _came the melody from the florr below. I went out into the hall. Was I the only on who was hearing it?

Slowly I went descended the long staircase, holding the candle far out in front of me to light my path, not myface. Slowly still, I crossed the hall when I reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the parlor.

The moonlight that went through the window illuminated the rose-color chair by writing table, the brandly cupboard, the cushions, and the clock. It shone on the grand piano as well, taking another step so I can get a closer look, I saw the hand, the severed hand, playing the piano, by itself.

The music stopped and the hand turned, as through lookin at me. With a small cry, I ran back to my room. Still holding the candle, I was stimbling up the stairs, tripping over my own gown.

_"Too roo de nay, too roo de noo," _came the last chords of the song, then it was all still.

In bed finally, my head beneath the covers, I hugged myself tightly to prevent from shaking. I heard other footsteps in the hall, the musical voice of Uncle Trent, a door opening, then murmurs from Gwen. The footsteps came to my room but they stopped outside my door. Finally, they returned to their bed, and the house became quiet.

However, for me, it didn't see there would be peace again. I had wakened the ghost of Izzy Green by bringing her color in my suitcase, and now, it seemed, I had let loose her upon the house. What was to become one of us, only the Lord knew.

The next day being Sunday, I stayed in my bed late, having slept poorly came the end of the night. When I came down I found Gwen and Trent having their breakfast out in the garden. Justin rarely came in time for breakfast on Sundays, and I looked forward to this one morning every week. I was free from my cousin's looks and comments. This time, since I was still shaky from last night, I wanted to eat alone in the kitchen, but Gwen saw me there and motioned me to come join them.

I took the muffin out to the table and sat down beside Trent.

"Good morning Trent," I said, "Good morning to you also Gwen."

"A wonderful good morning to you, sweetheart," Gwen said, studying my face, "how did you sleep last night?"

"I didn't sleep very well, but I did managed," I replied.

Trent was watching me as well. "Has it ever been said, Courtney, that you have been givin to sleepwalking? That you, perhaps, walk about in your sleep and you do things that you might not remember doing in the morning?"

I tried to make this mood lighten up, "If I did, Trent, I am sure I should be the last one to know."

"You don't remember going downstairs last night and playing a song on the piano?"

"How can I remember if I was sleepwalking like you claim? Why do you ask?"

"It's just that we both seemed to have been woken up to the sound of music that came from the piano last night and the floor creaking on your side of the hall. When we came out to check it out, your door was closed and you was abed," Gwen stated. Then turning to Uncle Trent, "Well, Trent, maybe the old age is catching up to us and we are just imaging things"

I wanted to tell them that they weren't imaging things, that it wasn't me you played the piano, but the hand of Izzy Green, Yet, I couldn't bring myself to it, for it would've mean that I would have confess of the green picture frame. Scared that I would be turned down from the home I knew.

As the days flew by, I didn't hear no more music at night and I didn't see the hand. Indeed, summer had burst upon Whispers overnight. The profusion of flowers, a burst of heat, and a blanket of humindity that I felt myself in the jungle. At Katie's Hat Shoppe, Leshawna and I worked with the front and back doors open that we could have a breeze coming in. Leshawna teaching me how to sew on a hatband without the stitches showing, and I took pride in my needlework which was almost as fine as hers.

On Sunday, Duncan stopped by and invinted me to come with him to the cove to do some fishing. I didn't want him to see me again. Not on how I acted to him on his birthday. I locked my window and avoided him as best as I could. He instisted that I should come with him, Gwen said it would do me some good. She told me to wear my oldest dress and she gave me her rubber bathing sandels, so I would protect my feet upon the rocks.

"Take an umbellra, Courtney, to shade you skin from the sun," she said.

_"My skin is tan. Why do I need to shade it?"_ I thought.

We intended to walk to the ocean this time, and appeared to be going on expedition, with fishing gear, picnic basket, an umbellra that I wasn't using, blanket, and sandels.

"You seem in a happy mood princess!" Duncan said to me as we walked along the shady street.

"I am. I think I am in a better mood then I have been ever since I came to Whsipers," I replied.

That had pleased him.

Duncan walked a little bit faster to get in front of me, then he started walking backwards, "I _must _be the reason to cause it," he said smiling.

"_You?_" I cried laughing, "What does it have to do with you?"

"Simple, think how disappointed you are when I'm not there to drive you home in the wagon! How your face lights up when you see me coming!"

"It does not! Just becasue I don't have flour to throw at you doesn't mean that I can throw something else at you."

"What would that be, princess?"

I smirked at him and put the umbellra towards him, "I don't know, maybe this?"

He laughed, "Oh, mother. A girl hit me in the head with an umbrella. What has this world come too?"

I laughed with him on that, then he said, "You locked your window."

I stopped laughing and said, "Is that a promblem?"

"How am I supposed to check up on you in the middle of the night?"

I blinked at this, "You come into my bedroom without me knowing?"

"Only once, I was hoping you would wake up in the middle of the night that way I could've talked to you," he said disappointed.

"What did you want to talk to me about?"

"Nothing, really. I couldn't go to sleep."

_"I know how that goes," _I thought, "You could've woken me up."

"Why? You look so peaceful when your sleeping."

We turned a corner off into a narrow dirt road, our shoulders brushed together as we walked, and Duncan didn't make an effort to pull away, neither did I. I was thinking on how very true he spoke, and we became quiet, not with awkwardness but with pleasure of being together. Away from the Sparrow house, I wanted to forget the hand, there were times I almost convnced myself that I was imaging things. Almost.

All of a sudden, Duncan turned to me and asked, "Want to go on a ride princess?"

I raised an eyebrow at this question, "Um..."

He rolled his eyes and picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like he does with his deliveries, "Duncan put me down!"

"Aw, princess why? We're almost there and I don't want you to get hurt."

The cove was back from the ocean, so that the rocks near the water's edge took the brunt of the waves. Once they broke the water rolled languidly into the cove, there it shimmered peacefully in the afternoon sun as gulls soared overhead and the ocean breeze fanned my face. Was there ever a place more lovely than this? I wondered. Then I had a painful memory.

**Flashback**

_Six year Courtney was sitting on the sand, watching her parents climb on a wooden board that was sharp at the top but became wider on the way down. She loved the expression her parents had when they started to play with the waves. Her mother came to her, her blonde hair glimmering, "Hey, Courts, what's wrong?"_

_"I want to play like what you and father play," she said as her dad came over with his cowboy hat soaking wet._

_"We will teach when you become of age. How does that sound?" her father asked._

_"I like the sound of that. What's the age?"_

_"When you become sixteen," her mother responded._

_"Ten more years. I can't wait! You promised?" she exclaimed._

_"Have we ever gotten your hopes high just to see you disappointed?" her father asked as he ruffled her hair._

_"No you haven't father." _

_Whenever she was on the beach was the only time she act like a child becasue her mother and father do._

**Flashback**

_"You have no. You broke a promise. Both of you," _I thought. I began to feel tears to form but I quickly pushed them back.

For a while Duncan fished, and I made his willing audience as he showed me his lures. In the first hour, he caught two fish -- one for each of us he said -- but then I began to wander away from him. I was climbing barefoot over the moss-covered rocks, lying facedown on their cool surface to explore the dark cracks between them with my hand. Gwen's rubber slippers proved itself that it was too large for me. One came off and was washed out into the surf.

I couldn't help but laugh as Duncan threw his fishing pole in the sand and went running out in the water to retrieve it, his shorts soaked. When he returned it to me. his clothing were dripping wet.

I was bent over with laughter while he said, "I don't have anything to ruin your pie crust, but I can do something else."

All of sudden, I was back on his shoulder and he took me out to the ocean, despite my attempted angry screams which turned into laughing screams and hitting his back, he threw me into the water.

He came over to me and grabbing my arms, dunking me underwater again, Breaking free from him, my clothes clinging to my skin, I splashed back to shore. Duncan behind me, where we had collapsed on the blanket

I was wringing out the hem of my dress, wiping my bare legs with my hand, when I happened to glance up at the rocks above and was startled, surprised, and scared at the same time. Becasue, there was Cousin Justin looking grimly down at us.

I was too surprised to say anything, He said nothing also. With narrowed eyes, he simply watch me there on the blanket with Duncan, and then he walked away.

**TODAY WAS A SNOWDAY FOR ME!!!!! Sorry I didn't update earlier. I was helping put the christmas decorations up. Eight more chapters left to go. T_T Read and Review! **


	14. Chapter 14

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

"Duncan," I said turning around to face him, "He scares me! Did you see the way Justin was looking at us up there?"

He glared where Justin was standing not to long ago, "He looked more at you then me."

"I don't like how he studies me sometimes. I don't think it's right for a cousin."

"Then you should tell him that. Directly to the point." Duncan said as his eyes softed and he opened the pinic basket. "Here, let's see what Gwen packed us for lunch."

He handed me a boiled egg and some dark bread, and soon we were settled against a rock, our bare feet strecthed out in front of us, enjoying our lunch and the breeze that blew in off the water.

At that moment I wished I could stay there the rest of my life, so comfortable I was with Duncan, with the sand, sun, and ocean. I could feel my skirt flopping about my legs in the breeze, drying against my thighs, and I didn't care at all if Duncan could see my ankles. I was delighted in the arch of my foot, the length of my toes, and thought how Gwen would cluck her tongue if she saw me.

"Princess, what was you thinking about before I showed you my lures?" Duncan asked as he put his hands behind his head.

"Nothing really, I was just reliving a memory about my family. How long have you known my cousin Justin?" I asked.

"I have known the Sparrow family ever since I can remember," Duncan answered. "I know who Justin is if I see him on the street, but I have never had much to say to him, or he to me.. He is more then twice my age."

"But, if you never knew him that good, why did you begin to dislike him and warn me, before I told you how he affected me?" I inquired.

"Two reason mostly."

"Care to go into detail?"

He signed, "One of them is because of his reputation. Two, is that Owen told me how he saw Justin study Izzy. Owen said that the look in his eyes were pure lust."

"What sort of reputation does he have?" I asked.

"Not like Trent's that for sure," Duncan said. Then he suggested that we share the blueberry tea cake that was in the basket, so the afternoon was blissfully whiled away. I sat down on the blanket, allowing my clothes to dry, and watched Duncan fished, he didn't catch nothing.

Around four o'clock, dark clouds appeared over the ocean and came rolling in, as though riding the waves.

_"Like my parents did." _I thought as we packed up for the journey.

For a moment, Duncan stopped and smirked to himself as we picked up the blanket and our hands touched. When Duncan brought his ends of the blanket over, he dropped it and quickly put his arms around my waist and kissed me.

For a second I was shocked at something that bold, but then again this is Duncan. I couldn't help myself but dropped the blanket and put my arms around his neck and kiss back.

That kiss, my very first kiss from a man that wasn't my father, was as wonderful as any tea chake I have tasted in my life, which only caused me be hungry for more.

But, Duncan drew away, started stroking my hair and asked, "Princess, why did you give me a picture of you when your ten? Don't you like what you see as yourself now?"

"It...it was all I had that would fit the frame," I said, my cheeks were turning pink, "Someday, I will get you a better one."

"I would rather have the picture then the frame."

I wanted to tell him everything. Everything that has happen in the Sparrow house! Yet, something kept stopping me. Only if I knew what the enormity of what I had done by bringing the color green back in my uncle's house, despite his wishes.

We walked hime and Duncan gave my hand a tight squeeze before he sent me inside. Even though the clouds brought rain, a drenching summer storm, my heart was filled with the delight of the afternoon, and I dared anyone to try and destoy it.

It was either the happiness on my face or a change in Trent. I didn't now but after dinner that evening he asked, "Courtney, how about a game of checkers in the parlor?"

"I would be happy to, but I don't think I have ever played," I told him.

"Then, I will teach you," he said with pleasure. With more teasing he said, " I believe you didn't know songs but someone taught you those."

So, with Gwen fanning herself humming the song Trent made for her sitting by the window, I sat down to begin my first game of checkers. Before long, one of my men was crowned and another.

"Aha!" Trent cried. "For a girl who has never played, Courtney, you are giving me a regular fight."

Justin, sitting on the sofa said, "When did we give up the conservation for checkers?"

"I will talk with you," Gwen said. "Tell me, Justin, how would you cure a sleepwalked?"

I wasn't pleased where this conservation had turned, I frowned at the board and moved one of my men to the left.

"A sleepwalker? Tell me what does this sleepwalker do?" Justin said.

"That we will know sometime in the future, I'll bet, but as of now, she came downstairs and played a tune on the piano," Gwen said.

I knew by the tone in her voice that it was only teasing on her part, but I couldn't help but wonder why did she bring this in front of Justin, I could only guess that it still weighed upon in her mind --- that she hoped each time the subject was aired and she might be able to convince herself sispicious that the ghost of Izzy Green would be lurking around, or it was a mere superstition that made her avoid the subject.

Justin, however, looking in my direction, "Well, Gwen my sweetie," at this comment Trent's face went up in anger and I could tell that he was going to start a fight with Justin if he talked like that to Gwen again, "perhaps the solution is to lock the offender up. After all, she may fall down the stairs and break her neck. She might go to the stove and set the house on fire. Put her in her room at ten o'clock each evening, lock the door, and keep the key in your nightdress until seven the next day."

The anger in his voice didn't escape Gwen's ear for she said quickly, "Oh, that is too serious of a solution, Justin." She laughed as through it was all a joke.

I heard Trent mumble on his breath, "If Justin trys to hit on Gwen again I will make sure I hit him...in the face." Then his normal voice, "Now Courtney, you are not paying attention." I saw that I had moved a man in such a way that Trent jumped three, capturing all of them.

At work the next day, I asked Leshawna, "What do you know of my cousin Justin? You have lived here in Whispers all your life. What do they say about him around town?"

Leshawna rolled her eyes at Katie and Sadie who were jumping up and down like it was they haven't seen each other in years, and I knew that this too was not a topic of conservation to be talked about in the shop. So, at lunch, where we ate our lunches out on the bench, sharing between us a small box of berries, she said, "If you want the truth about your cousin Justin, ask the ladies."

"What ladies?" I asked looking around.

Leshawna gave a laugh, "You won't see them now, Love, for they don't get up til six in the evening. The ladies of the night, I'm talking about."

I gasped, "You mean ...?"

She smiled and nodded her head. "_Those_ are the sort of ladies your is out with. Why do you think he keeps in rooms in town? Why, his father would throw him out if he ever brought _that_ sort home with him."

"Does everyone know about this?"

"Almost 's nothing to be done about it, is there? I mean, he's a man of forty -- he can do what he likes. Oh no, looks tweedle idiot brought a friend," Leshawna said as she began to glare.

I turned around and saw two boys coming towards us. One was wearing a red headband, red jacket with a 't' and red pants. The other ine was wearing a light tan shorts, dark green color shirt, his hair looked um ... stupid, and he kept smiling. I could sworn that his teeth was blinding the sun.

"Why hello there Leshawna. Fancy meeting you here. Who's your little friend?" said the one with the stupid hair as he brushed my hair out of my face.

"What do you want Chris?" Leshawna growled.

"He wants your little friend to be his while you be mine," said the man in red.

"Beat it Tyler. I don't want you and she doesn't want you Chris." Leshawna said while hissing.

The dude who pushed my hair out said, "You didn't ask her Leshawna. Hi little girl, I'm Chirs. Would you like some candy?"

"Dude, that just sounded wrong!" the dude in red who I am guessing is Tyler said.

"Does it matter? Come with me sweetie. I can make sure you have the best night you have ever had," Chirs said.

Leshawna began to growl as I said, "I think I will pass on that. I already have the best life I could ever dream of and I don't want no one night being the best to ruin my life."

Chris glared at me while Leshawna and Tyler held back their laughter, he growled at me and I can tell that I had made him angry, "Looks like I will have to take you by force then."

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that Tyler got out of Leshawna's way while she walked over and tapped Chris on the shoulder, "Don't you dare touch her!" then she punched him in the face.

"MY FACE!" he yelled as he ran away.

"Sorry about that. That's tweedle idiot. This is my friend who is sometimes forced by Chirs to come with him. Tyler meet Courtney. Courtney Tyler." Leshawna said

"Hi, sorry about that. I have a girlfriend and well, I better get going." Tyler said as he ran away and he somehow tripped on flat ground.

What Leshawna said to me about my cousin, I almost wished that I didn't hear what Leshawna told me, but I asked for gossip, and gossip is what I got. It didn't make me feel any more friendier toward my cousin, though. At the dinner table that evening. I felt a great rebellion toward him, which I was certain he couls sense from his chair at the end of the table.

"What has our orphan, been up to, that she has been so quiet this evening?" he asked feigning friendliness. I could barely keep a growl in as he continued, "Was she climbing about on the rocks with her panting boyfriend in pursuit? Was she moving her naked foot up and down his leg? Was she lying in the waves so her clothes ---"

"JUSTIN, THAT IS ENOUGH!" boomed his father suddenly, "STOP THIS! I WILL NOT STAND THIS SORT OF QUESTIONING AT MY TABLE! BETTER YET, IN THIS HOUSE!"

All of us stopped eating, we have never seen Uncle Trent quite so angry, his face was a deep purple. "IF YOU HAVE ACCUSTATIONS TO MAKE, MAKE THEM BOLDLY, BUT BY GOD, THEY HAD BETTER BE OF NATURE AS TO WARRENT OUR ATTENTION. COURTNEY IS NOT A SLAVE OR A PRISONER HERE. SHE IS ALLOWED BOTH HER FRIENDS AND HER FREEDOM, AND IF I MAY SAY, SIR, YOU SHOULD BE THE LAST TO JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS ON A PERSON'S CHARACTER!"

I had expected a loud and lengthy arguement to follow. Gwen got up quickly and made some excuse to attend to the kitchen, but Justin surprised Gwen and me, and apologized.

"What was mere joking was taken far too seriously, and I withdraw all my remarks so far,: he said as he lifted his wineglass and took a drink.

I knew Justin was lying but Trent didn't. I looked quickly at my cousin's face and I could see his eyes laughing, while the rest of his face looked sorry. When the cherry tart was brough to the table later, we each ate a piece with many compliment to the cook.

Justin left soon after dinner.

"Gwen," I said, "It's a warm evening, and you are still flushed from the cooking dinner. Why don't you and Trent go out in the garden and let me set the kitchen? I insist upon it."

She was fanning herself, and I could see that my offer had wanted her to move.

"Go!" I said again. "The blue **(I don't know if this color exists) **rosebush far back by the gate is in bloom, and I think that you shouldn't miss it."

"Then I will go!" Gwen said, getting out of her chair.

"The blue rose?" Trent inquired, "Of all the flowers that ismy favorite."

So they went and as Trent walked past me he whispered, "Thank you."

I rolled up my sleeves and set about washing the pots and pans, rinsing the silverware, and taking the unused potatoes and onions down to the root celler.

I was coming back up when I heard a noise in the kitchen. It was familiar sound, as though Gwen had returned and was starting to make dinner all over again.

_"Justin?"_ I thought. Had he come back and was rummaging about?

I got to the top step and stopped, listening.

_Chop, chop, chop, _the nouse went.

"Gwen?" I called.

The sound stopped for a moment.

I stepped up into the kitchen and look about. Out the window I could see Trent down on his knee with a ring and Gwen was shaking her head up and down before she hugged his neck. I smiled at this and glanced to my right, waiting for the sound to begin again, then to my left. _Chop chop chop. _I whirled about as the noise seemed to be coming from a back corner.

There on the chopping block was a cleaver, methodically hitting the boards, rhythmically chopping. Grasping the cleaver was the ghostly hand.

**It's getting intense isn't it? I have another question that has to do with my spanish project, Does anyone know what Santa Claus is called in Canada? Read and Review. Please and Thank you!**

~Snowleopardlover~


	15. Chapter 15

**IZZY GREEN**

**I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN**

**ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW**

I crept out of the kitchen and into the sunroom, stepping in tune to the _chop, chop, chop_ of the cleaver. I didn't know if I should Trent or run from the house, and surprised even myself, I didn't scream. I stood, instead, waiting for the chopping to stop.

It did at last, just as the piano playing had slowed down, then ended, and when at last I peeked into the kitchen, the hand was gone and the cleaver lay where Gwen had left it. There was new cuts on the chopping block, freshly made, and the depth of the cuts spoke more of the strength that ghostly hand had.

What did it mean? Was I to live like this the rest of my life, never knowing where the servered hand would show itself next, or what it might do? If it could hold a cleaver and bring it down with such force, was any of us saved?

Strange, as frighted as I was of what had just happen, I could feel anger growing inside of me, and a deteermination to catch this wayward hand and returned it to its grave, If it was I who had awakened the ghost by bringing my mother's picture frame into the house then it is I who should get rid of it, and that I made up my mind to do so.

Trent and Gwen had liked the evening air and stayed out in the garden for some time, looking at this flower and another while I cleaned the kitchen.

_Knock, Knock_

I looked towards the door and opened it, there stood Duncan. "Evening Princess!"

"Evening Duncan," I said as I went back to the work.

Duncan sat on the countertop while I worked, I was working furiously, scouring, sweeping, soaping, and rinsing for my htoughts were all a tumble, and I didn't know if my fervent activity was due to anger or terror. Nonetheless, Duncan put his hands on my shouders. "Relax Princess. The kitchen is clean, you don't need to break your fingers cleaning it. Not to mention I had the time of my life watching you work,:" he said with a wink.

"Duncan, I'm mad."

"Who? Why?"

"Cousin Justin and none of your business. Gwen and Trent are coming back. You might want to leave now."

With that he left. I appoarched Trent and stated bluntly, "Trent, I'm afraid that we might have rats, and I would like some traps to set about."

"Rats?" Gwen cried and I noticed a diamond ring on her left hand, "Surely not!"

"I have seen signs," I replied, "Droppings, and holes in the root celler the size of tennis balls. If you will get me some traps, I know where to put them, becasue if they are in the celler, they must be elsewhere in the house."

"If we have rats, we will make short work of them," Trent said, "I will ask Duncan Carely to bring us traps tomarrow."

I wondered if I would sleep at all that night. If Izzy Green cut her own hand off with a meat cleaver like people say, what might she do to me? Did she like me or dislike me for bringing her back in the house? At times, my answer was that if she had meant me harm, well she could have done that already. The arguement had reasons that she wanted to toy with me first even to drive me mad. Why? Why had she left in so terrible a manner, and what reason did she have to returned?

The following day the traps were deliveredm and the day after that, when Duncan was waiting for me with his horse and wagon ourside Katie's Hat Shoppe, I climbed up beside him and said, "Its a beautiful day isn't?"

"Everyday is beautiful when your around me, princess." Duncan replied which cause me to blush. Then he said, "Courtney, there are times I worry about you."

"Why?"

"The way you think about Izzy Green is one of them."

The words somehow hurt me. Does he see my mother's madness in me someway, something which I was aware of yet. How I was happy that I didn't tell him about the house.

"Is that all that troubles you about me?" I asked.

"That ... and other things," he replied.

"_What _other things?"

"Well, the picture you gave me -- of you at ten."

In Ohio, I was taught to jump off any wagon and land safely becasue of my father's postion, I wanted to do that so bad right now but I just said, "If you don't want it Duncan, then give it back."

"You don't understand what I am saying!" he insisted as I rolled my eyes. I have heard this conservation too many times with my father and it always ended up with his words stinging me more then what he intended, "Princess, you were upset that night -- like a desperate girl wanting to rid herself of the pox. What is it you are not telling me Courtney? There has to be more to the story, I'm sure about that."

His words were true but I wanted to jump off and ran away. Leave Whispers, leave Leshawna, leave Trent and Gwen, leave Katie and Sadie, leave cousin Justin and Izzy Green, leave Duncan, but I told him that it was a strain to live in a house where a girl had taken her life. Duncan seemed to accept this reason.

The sky was gray this morning, and continued gray even now, clouds billowing overhead like froth in a soup kettle. Some time on Duncan's route, we rode in silence. I was so tempted to jump off. Duncan finally spoke, "My father saw Trent in the Bib and Bottle last night. The way Justin, was talking, it seemed like he would have people believe that your uncle is going insane."

"Why would he talk like that?" I exclaimed, "Indeed, Trent has all his faculties about him, and i have never noticed or forget the slightest detail. He keeps every appointment, arriving on time, and attends do his duties better then most of us."

"That is how my father answered him, that if Trent Sparrow was becoming insane,then there was no hope for the rest of us, for he is as sharp as a pin."

I really wasn't puzzled that Justin would tell such a lie. With the family silver accident.

**Flashback**

_"You need to watch her, Father. She'll go out of this house with more than an umbrella. It wouldn't surprised me a bit if she was taking away my silver."_

_"Justin!" Gwen yelled._

_I was stunned to reply._

_Trent put down his wineglass, "On what do you base that accusation Justin? And, when did my silver became yours?"_

_"When I was born and I caught her running through the garden toward the alley this afternoon, Father. She was looking very guilty, very flushed, and she had a parcel hidden in her skirt. I tried to question her, but she broke away and ran to meet Duncan Carely. When she returned, she came empty-handed."_

_I was close to tears, yet I was so mad. All I could say was: "Are you accusing me of stealing sir? Am I the one who has already claim to the family silver while my Uncle Trent is very much alive? I want my uncle to be alive. I think you want him dead. Do you plan on murdering him?" I said directly looking at Justin, my voice was shaking._

_He glared at me while Trent and Gwen's mouths were wide open at my comment. Justin spoke, "I didn't say you was Cousin. I said you bear watching, that's all. Why would I want to kill my father?"_

_Gwen looked at him sternly, "Becasue you just said that she was stealing 'your sliver' when Mr. Sparrow is still alive. Courtney what you gave to Duncan is your business, especially since it's his birthday but--"_

_"It was a picture," I blurted out, "A picture of me. Nothing more."_

_"You gave him, your picture, Courtney?" inquired Gwen more surprised then angry," Well now!" she smiled and the next thing I knew she was hugging me, "Courtney is falling in love! Happy Day!"_

_Trent's voice took over the table, "You spoke correctly Gwen," she blushed at that statement, "It is Courtney's business, not ours, and they do bring a point up about the silver. I don't want to hear any more about your suspions Justin. Justin, since you, yourself, profess to ignore gossip, I trust you will not supply us with any more more at the table in the future."_

**Flashback**

"I asked my father what purpise would a man have to tell a falsehood about his own family," Duncan stated. "He tell me that of your uncle is declared insane by the court at some time in the future, Justin would inherit his estate, being his only living heir. With the expection of you, of course."

"Me? I am his niece and why the hell do you know so much about this court stuff and not the Artic Circle?" I replied.

He stared at me for a second and replied, "I have no idea. Very good question. Your still an heir. It all depends on what you uncle has written in his will. Regardless of what the will says, my father tells me, that if your cousin can convince the court that it should be declared invalid becasue your uncle was crazy when he wrote it, then Justin gains a great deal."

I didn't like this talk of my uncle passing away. If this should happen, I convinced myself that Justin would have me banned from his house without a penny to my name.

I sat there thinking on how I should save every cent I earned toward the day where this might happen. I had been doing as what Gwen told me to do, turning it over the greater part of my wage to her, where she kept them safe in her room. When they reached a certain sum she would give them to my uncle who would invest them properly for me.

Duncan dropped me off and it started raining. I don't know what time but after I made sure that Gwen and Trent were asleep, I opened my window and climbed down. I ran towards the cemetery to where Izzy Green was buried. I found her tombstone which said:

**Izzy Green**

**April 8 1869 - February 23, 1884**

**So short a stay**

**Upon this land**

**We grieve her death**

**By her own hand**

I looked closer at it and noticed that someone had scratched the last verse and that someone add, "_She was the best friend you can ask for,"_

I ran back to Trent't house and climbed up the tree. I entered my bedroom and changed my attire to something that was dry that way they wouldn't think I was sneaking out."

**Here's a question for you. I learned of it in Ancient World History Class today. Why would Athena, the goddess of war and wisdom, give her name to the city of Atheans when they thought women was unfit? Read and review.**


	16. Chapter 16

Izzy Green

I do not own TDI or Jade Green

It's in Courtney's POV

The days that followed, I left traps all over Trent's house. Behind the furniture, beneath the curtains, under the beds. Every few days I would change them around, always placing at least one in the root cellar, yet I never caught the hand, and I began to realize just how foolish I was. A hand clever enough to hold a cleaver, a hand talented enough to play the piano, wouldn't be stupid enough to finger its way into a rattrap.

In two weeks, I told Gwen that although I didn't catch any rats, they seemed to be driven from the house, for I didn't see any more signs of their presence. She was relieved. _"If the hand could disappear so readily",_ I thought.

In contrast to the turmoil in my own heart, Uncle Trent begun to smile more and more, and sometimes would even come home in the afternoon whistling to himself softly. His countenance at the dinner table was much more pleasant and cheerful than it had been before, and no sooner would he sit down than he began on how we should spend the evening.

"I am thinking," he said one night, "that we should all stroll down to the sea after dinner, Gwen. You must put on your sturdiest shoes, and Courtney can bring the wine flask in a basket. We will sit on a beach and cool ourselves, watching the sunset. I will go see if Duncan would like to come."

"Before you leave Father, you can count me out," Justin replied. "If I am going to the seashore I will ride as is my custom. I am not a common laborer who hasn't a horse to his name."

Justin and Trent left the house. While I was getting the wine flask I felt someone breathing down my back and then someone's hand was around my waist, "Princess, why didn't you tell me sooner that you were planning on heading to the beach?"

"Trent just mentioned it at dinner, if he did tell us sooner I would have invited you on short notice," I replied as I turned around.

"Sure you were princess. So, what's with the deal with the ring that Gwen is wearing?"

"I have no idea but as soon as I do, you will be the first to know," I replied.

"Do you know how she got it?"

"Duncan, Courtney, You ready?" Trent asked.

"Coming," I replied. "I'll tell you on the way there."

As we were watching the sunset, Duncan led me to the cove without Gwen and Trent noticing us.

"So back to Gwen," he asked as he put his hands around my waist and his head on my shoulder.

"The other night, I insisted that they go for a walk in the garden while I get the dining room set up for the next day. I went to the root cellar to put the leftover potatoes and onions away and when I came back up, I saw Uncle Trent on one knee and Gwen was crying for some reason. When they came back in, I noticed the ring but I didn't say anything about it," I replied.

"Interesting, we should get back to Gwen and Trent before they think of anything," he said.

Sometimes, as we enjoyed our salads first in the garden, Trent would propose that I play the piano that night – all the songs are to be chosen by Gwen. On another night, he might suggest that all songs would be chosen by him or we would play checkers on the large front parch until darkness drove us inside, and then we would light the gas lamps and continue our game.

Some evenings we would stroll in the garden, and once I engaged my Trent in a game of hide- and-seek among the bushes. Amazed was Gwen that at the sight of my uncle ducking and bobbing around the maze, exclaiming when he saw me or when I caught him, that she collapsed on a bench with laughter.

While I was hiding, someone lifted me up in the air and around their shoulder. "Duncan, let me go!" I screamed while Gwen and Trent laughed.

One evening, as we were coming in from the garden, Trent put one of his arms around my shoulder, the other around Gwen's waist and said, "I have not been so happy in a long, long time. Courtney, you have made this place a lively place indeed, and you, Gwen, have kept this house a home. I shall not forget you, I promise." Then he said something in Gwen's ear which made her giggle a little bit.

Gwen clucked her tongue, and I in turn did my best to convince him that the pleasure was ours, and that we enjoyed ourselves as much as he, But again he said, "I won't forget you," so I asked if he was going away.

He laughed before replying, "No, my dear, but when it comes time for me to leave this earth, you and Gwen will be well provided for, I assure you."

We told him that that we would not listen further into this talk, that the thought of the Sparrow house without him would be too dreadful to contemplate, and so it was, for I knew that with my uncle gone, Justin would move back in overnight, to live as he pleased.

The happier we seemed the more silent Justin was. He would sit at the table with nothing to say, expect to call for the wine or remark on the sauce. I avoided his glance as much as possible, for there wasn't any clarity in his eyes where I was concerned, and scarcely more for Gwen. When he did give me his attention, he studied those parts of a woman's body that she takes great deal to conceal, and this made me uncomfortable at the max.

He usually arrived late, so that he had only to slide in at the table and begins to eat, and left early, taking no part in our checker games or singing once the meal was over. In fact, we were never sorry to see him go, and the subject of Cousin Justin was one Uncle Trent preferred not to bring up. So we would pass the time with no mention of him whatever.

I felt I could learn to live this way and be reasonably content --- seeing Cousin Justin only at breakfast occasionally, and in the evening just long enough for dinner. He was now working half days keeping the books for a dentist in Whispers, and in the afternoon it was said, he went to the racetrack, where he gambled away all he earned each morning.

Duncan continued to call for me from time to time at the hat shop, and would take me home the long way round through the park. If it were not for Duncan and our rides, and our occasional trips to the cove, I would have been miserable, for I didn't enjoy the hot, sultry air in Whispers. Perspiration gathered between my breasts and trickled down my back, a most unpleasant sensation, and the bodice of my dress was often soaked through requiring frequent washings.

Gwen was pleasant and my uncle was kind, and I enjoyed my work at the hat shop, where Leshawna always supplied me with the latest gossip.

"They say your cousin was drunk on the town last night," she whispered to me one morning. "I hear he was standing outside the Bib and Bottle cursing because they would sell me no more ale." And then she added, "It's not your fault, Sweetie, and I shouldn't have mentioned it. Your uncle is one of the finest men in Whispers, and it's a pity he should have a son."

"Every family has their problems," I said, "And Justin is ours." Within my heart, may God forgive me, I found myself wishing that a carriage might run him over some night in his drunken state, or that he might fall and break his neck. I sucked in my breath, shamed at such a thought, but I couldn't deny it to myself.

Yet it was far more then Justin that troubled me, and I knew if I could rid the house of Izzy Green, I should be far happier here in Whispers. The ghostly hand couldn't be caught, and I could not guess its design or purpose. I had not seen it for some weeks and began to hope that on the days we had kept the door open, the hand might somehow have found its way outside and went back to the grave.

One evening, however, after an elderly resident of Whispers had died, Trent and Gwen left to attend the wake. The purpose of their departure made our own house gloomier still, and I busied myself as best as I could. I was alone in the parlor, sewing on a button that had come off my shift, when I suddenly heard the piano playing again.

My fingers paused over my sewing, and my heart began to race. Inch by inch I raised my head until the piano was in my sight. There was the hand, practicing upon the keys.

_Too roo de nay, too roo de noo…_

I couldn't stand this torment.

"No!" I cried dropping the sewing to my feet and lurching out of my chair.

The hand stopped playing and turned toward me.

"Get out!" I screamed. "Get out of this house! You don't belong here! Go!"

As I moved slowly around the room, the hand pivoted on the keys, as if watching my every step.

As I looked for something to grasp, and edged toward the front door, which was propped open with a brick to let in the evening breeze. Without taking my eyes off the hand, I slowly knelt down and picked up the doorstop. Then, when the hand stopped playing and began crawling down the leg of the piano, the fingers grasping the wood like some jungle animal scaling a tree, I hurled the brick, striking the ghostly hand a hard blow, one of the brick gouging the piano leg.

"May that be the end of you?" I cried as the hand dropped to the floor but then I said, "May you remind Owen of the times you had together."

My eyes grew wide as the hand, quite flat now and lifeless at first, began to move. First the now and lifeless at first, began to move. First the thumb and index finger pulled themselves up and, raising the palm along with them, began the slow crawl across the floor. The smallest finger, however, the pinkie, had been almost severed by the brick, and now dragged motionless behind the others. While I watched in horror, the hand limped its way toward the kitchen. There it stopped and turned stiffly in my direction, as though gazing at me sternly, and then moved more swiftly into the shadows.

**I'm going to do 2 song fictions and I want to know if I should E/B/G or C/G/T for one of them. Read and Review!!! **


	17. Chapter 17

IZZY GREEN

I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN

ITS IN COURTNEY'S POINT OF VIEW

I am using Mother's Laptop and its different then mine.

My internet stopped working on mine. T.T

I was sick with terror. Now I had the anger of my cousin Justin and the wrath of the ghostly fingers as well.

Rushing to my room, I slammed the door behind me, knowing that no door, no lock, could keep Izzy Green out. I had acted in haste with little thought as to the consequences, and now my life here in Whispers could be the worst of it. What was I to do?

There wasn't going to be any sleep that night for me and I wouldn't dare to blow my candle out. I headed downstairs when I heard Trent and Gwen came back and I told them that I would be in bed early. Gwen was staring at the piano leg.

"What is this?" she asked bending down to run her hand over the mark I had made.

"I ... I threw the doorstop," I said. "I am terribly sorry. The door was open, and a rat ran in and crossed the parlor. I am afraid I lost my head, and thought to kill it, but only the piano got harmed."

It was impossible to know if she believed me or not, the story itself was weak and my face burned to tell the lie.

"Well," she said unhappily," you'd best go to bed. I can try to cover the mark with polish."

I did as she told me to do, but I didn't close my eyes. I propped myself up against my pillows and scanned the room.

Every 'crack' or 'scratch' or 'clink' -- a branch scaping my window, even -- produced in me such panic that I felt I was that I wasn't mad but I would be soon. When morning came, I could scarcely move from my bed.

I didn't want any questions, however, so I put on my brightest dress, my cheeriest smile, and arrived at the breakfast table as amiable as I could be, concentrating on my tea and biscuit, and ignoring Justin, who always seemed to know when I was upset.

"So, Orphan, is that a false smile I see pasted on your lips this morning or a real one?" he asked.

"One should accept that a smile is a smile and not to try and make it any different," I told him conintinuing the charade then.

"Are those dark circles I see under your eyes?" he asked. "You didn't sleep well, I take it?"

Did he have anything to do with the hand? I wondered. Were they united for my own destruction?

"I am quite well, I assure you," I said not answering his question directly. Then to Gwen, "I think I will take my tea in the garden if that is alright with you?"

"Of course it is!" she said. "The air feels like rain is coming. Enjoy it while you can."

I carried my tea to the table outdoors, but was dismayed when my cousin followed and sat down across from me so that it was most diffucult to tip my cup without looking into his eyes.

"So what does waggle-tongue Leshawna have to say about me these days, I wonder?" he began. "Katie too."

"Why not ask them?" I said.

"Becasue their stories are written all over your face, and I amuse myself reading between the lines." He smile the sort of smile I really didn't care for.

"I daresay you already know what is being said about you," I continued. "You need only look to your conduct, Justin, for the answer."

"My own conduct?" He laughed heartily. "That I am a man who enjoys his ale? Who appreciates women? Who is challenged by a good bet or a fast horse? Is not a person a man in every sense, and would you like me less of one?"

He was starting to tick me off. "A man, sir, in my opinion, is a moderate in his drink, selective in his woman, and doesn't risk his money over a gaming table," I told him.

"Ah! Then you would be best stick with your poor Duncan Carely, with his simple pleasures; you will grow up to marry the simple man, and become a dull wife with simple children."

He is so close to asking for it, "My affrairs are none of your concern," I said curtly.

"Or mine yours!" he said more jovially. "So let us have no more judgmental scowls from you, Courtney. What I do on my own is my business, don't you agree?"

There was truth in what he spoke, and I thought that if I change my manner toward him, he in turn mught behave differently with me. So with a deep breath I extended my hand across the table and said, "Yes, Cousin. I agree. From now on I shall withhold my scowls, if indeed there be any on my face, and shall not meddle with your concerns if you will not meddle in mine." "Agreed!" he said. "As long as you will allow me to inquire your health now and then, and to offer my assistance should you need me in any way."

"That would be most kind of you," I told him, but as I tried to withdraw my hand, he would not allow it and, holding fast to my wrist, ran one finger lightly across my palm, up my arm, leering at me as he attempted to gain entrance into the sleeve of my dress. I jerked myself away from him with such force that I knocked my teacup. Justin only laughed as I ran back into the house.

All day the episode weighed on my mind, but Leshawna was chattering on about a new boyfriend of hers. She told me his name was Dj and how they had sneaked off to the shore in the moonlight and gone for a nighttime swim.

My eyes opened wide as I listened to this, and I laughed along with her at her impulsiveness. "How did you explain to your mother when you return that your dress is drenched in salt water?"

This time, Leshawna's eyes were dancing and she leaned over so far that her lips touched my ear. "We didn't wear clothes," she told me. "We swam with nothing on."

I gasped, my face redding at the shocking news, but I couldn't help but laugh as well.

"Leshawna!" I said, glancing around unless we was to be overheard. "Surely not!"

She nodded and went on with her stitching, smiling still.

"But ... but, how can you avoid touching each other when you are there in the water together with the waves rolling in?"

She leaned my way again, "We didn't avoid it at all," she said.

I immediately bent over my work, my face red with this new information, trying to imagine Duncan and me on this equally familiar terms. I imagined it all too well and felt feverish the rest of the day.

To be young was a most wonderfully scary thing, I decided, for none could know what lay ahead, and there was much to be experience. The very same thought brough with it the memory of Izzy Green's picture, the way it had appeared for a moment in my mother's frame --- so full of life and adventure. She had been rescued from the gutter and placed in my uncle's house, given, I would guess, every opportunity to make something of herself. How could she cut so young a life? I wondered again as I had so many times before.

"Leshawna," I found a chance to whisper that afternoon. "How did they know Izzy took her own life? How did they know she wasn't murdered?"

"It was plain as day," Leshawna replied, "and obvious to all she had planned it. For it was wintertime when it happened, and Izzy had put on a heavy sweater and hidden herself in the attic. She was found dead on the stairs from loss of blood, her severed hand beside her, and in her other hand, the cleaver."

I closed my eyes and swallowd, remembering the 'chop, chop' of the cleaver in the kitchen, and later, the sight of the partially severed finger trailing after the others. All afternoon I thought of Izzy Green's death, and it was still on my mind when I rode home in the wagon with Duncan.

When I mentioned it to him, however, he said, "It was a strange way to die, I'll grant you, but do you have to dwell so much on this Princess? Can't you add a little fun to your life?"

He was right, of course.

"What would you have me do?" I asked defensively. Then on impulse, I added, "Swim in the sea, like Dj and Leshawna?" My cheeks suddenly turned bright red that I should say something like that aloud to him.

He turned to me in such surprise that I laughed to see his face. Duncan chuckled all the way home, and was smiling yet when I jumped off the wagon and ran insides.

At dinner that evening, Uncle Trent seemed of an unusually serious matter, and just before Gwen passed out the cake and berries, he said, "Justin, if you have no urgent business after dinner, I would like you to stay for a time, as I have somethings to discuss while we are at the table."

"Does it concern me alone Father, and is an audience required?" Justin asked.

"It concerns everyone in this room," Trent said. "So if you would be so good, sir, as to stay a short while ..."

I wished he had announce this after the cake had been serverd, for I was so worried as to what he might say that I scarce enjoyed my dessert. (How much food do they eat everyday????)

When the cake had been eaten, the tea brought for the ladies and brandy for the men, Trent leaned back in his chair, one hand in his vest pocket, and said: "I have two announcements. I will get the one that concerns all of you done, then the one that concerns the ladies. I am leaving town for two days and will be in Charleston on business; it's time I went over my financial holdings, updated my will, and see to other matters."

"What I would like to state, however, in the presence of all three of you is that I am directing my attorney, in the event of my death, to divide my property as of this: The house shall go to you Gwen. You have cared for it so faithfully all these years, with the condition that Courtney is allowed to remain here and call it home as long as she likes," Justin gasped, but Trent continued, "All the rest of my holdings -- my land, my accounts, my stocks, and bonds, -- shall be divided three ways; one-tenth to you Gwen, and the other ninety percent to be divided equally between Courtney and Justin."

A chair scraped as Justin rose to his feet, his face contorted with rage. The sight of him frightend me greatly. Gwen was paler then what she usually was.

"This is an outrage, Father, and an insult to your rightful heir," he said then turning around so suddenly that his chair tipped over backward and crashed to the floor, he strode out of the room and left the house.

"Judith, the other concerns mostly about you," Trent said.

I swallowed. I expected a lot of things that he could have said but this surprised me the most.

"Gwen and I are engaged. Justin will find out when it is too late," he said smirking.

SORRY IT TOOK ME SO LONG. MY LAPTOP INTERNET IS DOWN AND I LOST THE BOOK. 


	18. Chapter 18

I do not own TDI or Jade Green

This is a good chapter XD

I discovered that I was to be provided for the rest of my life, and that I had made a mortal enemy, all in a space of minutes. My uncle's announcement had brough such joy and relief to both Gwen and me and that all we had been able to was repeat, "Oh, sir!" and "Oh, Uncle!" again and again. With the sudden and angry departure of my cousin, we quickly fell silent and stared after him, not knowing what to do.

"Don't worry about Justin," Trent said. "He will have quite enough money to sustain him the rest of his life, even if he doesn't deserve it. But I will rest easier knowing that the two of you are provided for also."

"You are most generous and kind!" insisted Gwen.

I also said. "That this was far more than I ever expected from you."

But Trent just clapped his hands and said we would talk no more about it. He would like another piece of Gwen's cake and then he should like nothing more then the three of us to walk down to the shore again and sit awhile, for autumn was coming soon and there would not be many of these warm evenings left. So we set out, the three of us, and enjoyed the ocean breeze playing on our faces as we watched the waves swell and break.

A group of men came by, Tyler was on of them, one of them looked like a geek (Cody), one of them was big musclecar man with an anchor tatoo on his arm, one was big musclear but was wearing a white cap, one of them was Duncan, and the last one, no matter how many times I blinked, he looked a lot like my deceased father, riding their unicycles on the boardwalk, and when Duncan saw me, he went through a wondrous performance of turns and spins, backing up and pivorting, so that we began to applaud. At that the other five men came back, and they rode in a line in front of us, as if onstage.

Before they started doing this, I saw Trent doing his best to try and figure why does the one in the cowboy hat looked like his brother, but they made him laugh so it was worth the walk down from the house just to see him enjoying himself.

"Duncna Carely, you watch out or a circus will have you!" Gwen cried. "You are better at your unicycle then you are with your father's horse and wagon, I'll wager."

"Now, Gwen, no one has complained yet about my service," Duncan told her. "If you do make a complaint, I swear I will run off to the circus and take Courtney with me."

At this, the man with the cowboy hat eyes went open wide while Uncle Trent and Gwen laughed again. I liked hearing Duncan talk so in front of the other men. All the same, my cheeks blushed, but Duncan threw me a kiss and a wink as he pedaled away. I remembered the first time we had gone to the cove, and the way his lips had kissed mine as he dropped the blanket.

That night, while I was sitting on my bed, my window pushed open. Duncan came in.

"Did you like my perforance I put on for you?" he asked smirking.

"It made Trent laugh and I thought what happen before your performance, that nothing would make him laugh." I replied.

Duncan looked out the window, "If it's Owen tell him that I have chocolate up here," I said getting up.

He turned towards me, "It's not Owen. Its one of my buddies that was with me during my unicylce performance."

I noticed something on his cheek, "What happen here?" I asked as I lightly touched it with my finger.

"You never saw a bruise before?" he asked bewildered but he didn't move.

"I don't have a candle with me and how did you get it?"

A branch snapped which made Duncan turned around and looked around to only be poked by a cowboy hat. "Dude, what is your problem?" Duncan asked

"Sorry Duncan," cowboy hat said.

"Princess meet Geoff. Geoff meet Courtney. Out of the six of us, he's the second oldest." Duncan introduced.

'Concidence, cowboy hat dude looks and has the same name as my dad.' I thought

"Duncan, can I talk to Courtney alone?" Geoff asked.

"Sure," Duncan said as he climbed out the window.

"COURTNEY DON"T YOU RECONGIZE ME!" Geoff yelled/whispered at me.

I backed away from him not responding.  
"COURTNEY ITS ME! YOUR FATHER!" he yelled/whispered at me again.

"Lies! He's dead!" I whispered back.

"I had to fake my death. Please forgive me!" Geoff begged. "Courtney Joan Sparrow. Born on July 8th. Mother is Bridgette Ann Sparrow. Favorite color is icy blue." He kept repeating the facts that only I told few people and I kept shaking my head. "Your mother and I promised to teach you how to surfboard when you turned sixteen."

When he said that, I fell to my knees, crying, "Father?"

"Yes?" he asked getting to his knees and rubbing my back.

"YOUR LEFT US! YOU LEFT MOTHER AND I WHEN WE NEEDED YOU THE MOST!" I whisper at him harsly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want you or your mother to get ..."

I interrupted, "Mother is dead becasue she gave birth to a stillborn and she died in a madhouse! No matter what you did you hurt us."

"That's why either of you wasn't there," he mumbled.

"Where? At the house? We had to sell that to pay off your debt!"

He got up and said, "I'm sorry Courtney. Please forgive me!

As soon as he went out the window, I locked it. I ignored Duncan.

I as soon as I realized that he was gone and I went and stared at it. I was crying so hard that I didn't hear the door open and the footsteps on the floor. But, I felt someone's hands go around my waist and a voice, "Did Geoff do something to?"

"No," I repled as best as I could.

"Princess tell," Duncan commanded as he spinned me around and pushed me against the wall.

"Geoff didn't do anything to me, its that he told me who he was." I replied.

"Duh, he's the party boy. Geoff." Duncan replied as he started to lean on the wall.

I shook my head no and said, "He WAS my father."

"What do you mean he was your father?"

"It means that he is my father but I don't want him to be," I snapped.

"Didn't he die?"

"He faked his death."

I felt hot tears come down my face but he kissed me on the lips as he moved one of his hands behind my neck and leaned it back. He broke away from me and unlocked the window and broke the lock.

"That way I won't have to go through the kitchen door," he replied smirking.

"I never knew you was that desperate to see me."

The following day Uncle Trent packed his case as I prepared to set out for Katie's Hat Shoppe. Justin didn't come for breakfast that morning. IN fact, Iwondered if we should see him ever again, he was so angry when he left the table the last night.

"Good-bye Trent," I said. "We shall see you in two days' time then. Have a safe journey."

The sky didn't please me as I made my way toward town. The clouds had an unfriendly look, reminding me of the day I had first came to Whispers. I told myself that the weather cannot always be fair -- in Ohio as well as the Carolinas -- and so I worked cheerfully in the hat shop, putting a new display of fall bonnets in the window for ladies to admire.

At luncgtim, I traded secrets with Leshawna . When I told her about Duncan saying that he would run off with me to the circus, she said, "Gwen, had better watch out that he doesn't run off with you to marry. For I've seen the fond way he looks at you when he's waiting outside in the wagon. On some days, he has a distant stare but his eyes keep following you"

"Oh, nonsense!" I told her, but my heart knew it was true.

When I arrived home that afternoon, Trent was gibe, and Gwen was hard at work in the root cellar, making room for the potatoes and onions and turnips we should store when the weather grew colder. I didn't mind working in the root cellar, for it was the coolest place to be on a warm day, and I liked the dank smell of earth; liked walking about on the straw and counting the apples and potatoes still left in the bins.

Gwen had started up the short flight of stairs to the kitchen above with an apron full of potatoes, and I was close behind her, when suddenly she gave a scream and dropped her apron. Potatoes rained down on me, and I put out my arms in case she fell down.

"Gwen, what is it?" I cries stumbling up the steps behind her.

The poor woman couldn't speak -- her face was white as milk and her pale skin combined. She grabbed my arm and screamed again, pointing, and there, coming across the kitchen floor, was the ghostky hand, dragging its halfsevered finger like a tail.

I reached forward, gripping the door handle, and pulled the door shut with a 'bang' which was useless, of course, for the hand could easily flattened itself on its palm and edged under. I knew not what else to do to calm the cook down, afraid her heart might give way.

I helped her down the steps and onto the old cobbler's bench, where we often sat when we sorted apples. Her eyes were as large as coat buttons, however, and words wouldn't come. She only clutched at my arm trembling.

Finally she said, "It's her, then. The ghost of Izzy Green."

"You have seen it before?" I asked. "The hand?"

"Mercy, child no! What else could it be? Oh, after her death, we heard shrieks and moans from that room where she died, it was enough to break one's heart amd chill the bones, I tell you. Once we rid the house of all she held dear, the sounds came no more, and we were sure we were quit of her."

There came a scurrying, scratching sound from the door of the root cellar, and again Gwen gave a cry and cowered against the wall, hands over face.

In the flickering glow of the candle, I watched for the first sign of those thin, white, fingers, working themselves through the crack under the door, but they didn't appear. Instead, it sounded as though the hand were climbing up the wall and door frame. And then ... a noise that stopped my breath: the metallic 'click' of the bolt, locking the door from outside. 


	19. Chapter 19

I do not own TDI or Jade Green

"God help us!" Gwen cried in despair, and I began to think we were fone for at last, trapped like two rats in a hole. I began to shiver so violently that Gwen forgot her own promblems and proceeded to comfort me as best as she could.

"Someone will find us," she said. "Someone will come, and if we have to spend two days here before Trent returns, well ... we will be miserable, I warrant, but we will not die."

My trembling didn't subside for in truth it wasn't born becasue of the fear, it was of the guilt. The small flame of the melting candle struggled to keep its glow within the hot wax, and finally turned blue and died, leaving us in darkness, and I knew that if I was ever to tell my guilty sercret, it has to be now.

"Gwen," I wept, "I need to ask your forgiveness. Yours, Trent's." 'And my father's,' I thought.

"Why, sweetie, whatever for? What could you have done that would make you talk so?"

As I continued to weep, she put her arms around me and rocked me like a babe, my tears moistening the front of her shirt.

"It's all my fault," I sobbed. "The hand ... the ghost .... everything that has happen lately is becasue of me."

She slowly stopped rocking me, but held me still. I felt her exhale as she took a breath and finally she said, "You brought something green into the house ...."

"Yes," I said as I was pulling away from her then, and in the refuge of darkness, confessed what I had done.

"I didn't think that my mother's picture, in the green silk frame, could do anyone harm," I finished, beginning to cry all over again. "I had vowed not to take it out of my suitcase where Trent might see it and be upset."

Once again I felt the good woman sigh as she patted my back. "I think I knew that we couldn't keep Izzy Green away forever," she said. "At some time or other, someone would bring the color into the house again, or we would find something left behind by that poor child. I wish you had obeyed Trent's wishes though; how much simpler things would be. I don't know, if I was in your place, that I could have left behind a picture frame given to me by my mother either. We will have to deal with it the best we can."

It was at that moment we heard footsteps. Why we both didn't cry out for help at once, I will never know. But they were not the footsteps of my uncle, and indeed, sounded so strange, so secretive, that we both stopped breathing and lifted our heads to listen.

The sound came from the back poarch, hesistant soft footsteps, and then the creak of the door as it opened.

All was quiet, and Gwen, was about to call out when I clutched her arm, yet I don't know why.

There were three more footsteps, a pause, three more ...

"They are out, then?" we heard Justin murmur. "Much better for me."

Gwen sharply drew in her breath.

The soft footsteps continued, a few at a time, like a man cautiously making his way around. Then the creak of the stairs to the second floor.

I had visions of the hand following along beside him on the banister, pointing him back down again, beckoning toward the door to the root cellar, where we was currently trapped.

In a while, though, all noise stopped. We didn't know if justin was upstairs or down, still in the house or gone. Gwen began to cry silently in fright.

"He's to no good, you can bet," she wept.

"Shhhhh," I wispered in her ear. "We have to be quiet. If he sees that the door to the root cellar is locked, he will not consider that we are here."

It was around twenty minutes before we heard Justin's footsteps on the stairs again. He seemed to be making a slow tour of the downstairs rooms. We could hear doors opening, checking to see if we were in Trent't study, out in the sunroom, the parlor ... The footsteps came back to the kitchen again and stopped just outside the cellar door.

"Out for a walk, are they?" he murmured. "We when they come back, they are in for a surprise..." We heard the back door open, and a minute later his carriage rolled away.

Had the hand somehow knew that he was coming? I wondered Had the ghost of Izzy Green purposely locked us in here so that Justin wouldn't guess that we were down in the root cellar? Was is possible that the hand was no enemy after all, just the sad ghost of a girl whose life had become so unbearable that she secided to cut the string?

Just as Gwen and I began to sigh with relief that Justin was gone, the sigh turned into a gasp and the gasp became a sharp cry.

For the both of us, at the same time, smelled smoke.

Am I the only one who gets sick four days into xmas vaction?!?!? Read and Review. Two more chapters before this story is done. 


	20. Chapter 20

I DO NOT OWN TOTAL DRAMA ISLAND OR JADE GREEN

I MIGHT GET THIS STORY COMPLETED TODAY (T-T)

I started to scream, but Gwen began to pray. She broke off in the middle of the prayer and began to cry, her voice shaky and high.

"There's no window, sweetheart, to crawl out of, now water to get our clothes wet. If the smoke doesn't get us, the floor above us will burn and come crashing down on our heads! Oh, mercy!"

The smoke gew stronger still, and was soon accompanied by a crackling sound. Together we screamed and called, and it was only a minute before Gwen passed out and crumpled to the floor, not from the smoke but from terror.

At that very moment, I heard yells from outside --- then still more shouts. Running feet, footsteps pounding on the porch, the old gardener's excited voice saying 'Gosh!' and 'IDIOT'  
and then Duncan calling: "Princess! Princess! Where are you? Owen lost Izzy in this house, I don't want to lose her Tyler!"

"Here!" I screamed. "In the root cellar! Hurry!"

I ducked just in time or else the door to the root cellar would have hit me in the head. The tatto dude from before was wearing a pink dress. At that moment, I wished I had passed out to save my eyes. "Chef, there was a freakin lock on the door! NOW GET OUT OF MY WAY!" Duncan said.

Chef moved and there was a burst of daylight, the smoke filled kitchen, flames and the next thing I knew was that I was hoisted up in the air and I was drenched with water. Gwen was carried out by Chef.

Gwen woke up and some dude who was wearing tan shorts, sandles, a white t-shirt, black glasses that covered his eyes with brown hair said, "It's out now."

Noah said from behind the man, "Was you girls trying to take your own livies, it was a kitchen fire."

Geoff said, "You have a blackened wall and ceiling, Miss, but beyond that, it's not much harm done."

The neighbor women were helping Gwen stand, Leshawna and Sadie were there with two women I haven't seen before. One of them had black hair in a ponytail, with a scrowl over her face. The other woman, I was surprised that Duncan wasn't drooling over her, had a blue hankercheif in her beautiful blonde hair, she had a dress on that was semi-revealing in the top half. When Gwen saw the sight of the kitchen, she passed out again. Within an hour, the neighborsa were scrubbing down the soot and carting out the burned plaster.

"How did it happen?" they asked

"What was you cooking?"

"Where was the men?"

"It happen so fast," I told them

Everyone went away finally expect for Duncan, and I knew there wouldn't be no escaping his questions, for it was he who carried me to safety.

I made soup and some buttered toast for Gwen and took her to bed with Duncan's promise that he would stay here for tonight. It was when I was looking for her nightdress did I notice that her dresser had been searched, the drawers opened, contents scattered. Only then sis we find that her most recent savings were gone, with mine.

"Oh, dear!" she exclaimed. "It has to be Justin's doing as sure as I can breath." She wept a littlen then, but when we compared our money from our recent savings to our life, we felt fortunate.

After I had closed the door and gone downstairs again, I went into the parlor and sat on the sofa with Duncan who just got done eating an apple. I noticed how big the bruise was and I lightly touched it, "You still didn't tell me what happen here."

"I just got in a fight. Nothing that you need to worry about," he said.

"But ..." I started to say but he pressed a finger over my mouth.

"Princess, there is something that you are not telling me. Who locked you in the root cellar? Was it Justin?"

"It was Justin, perhaps, who set the fire and stole Gwen's money, but he didn't lock the door."

"Who was it then?"

I looked away and took a deep breath, "That I can't tell you, Duncan, for you will never believe me, and you should believe that I be shut away as a madwoman. The answer must stay with me."

He gently took my face and made me face him, then he gently took my hand. "If the answer stays with you, then it comes between us. You MUST tell me. Was it your uncle?"

"Uncle Trent? Never. He has gone to Charleston."

"It wasn't Justin. Harold? I still need to pay him back."

"No, he didn't. Why do you need to pay him back?"

"He cheated me out of money. Then who is left?"

"I don't want to say."

Duncan looked straight in my eyes. "I give you my solemn word that you shall not be locked up, no matter how much I disbelieve you."

I put my hand back on his bruise, "It's a strange story."

He put one hand around my waist which made him able to pull me closer to him. With the other hand he removed my hand from his bruise. "I love a good story so begin, but can we do this in your bedroom?"

"Why?"

"Your the one who suggested what Leshawna and Dj did," he said smirking.

I shook my head no, but I did snuggles as I was against him, beneath his protective arm, the other arm went around to connect to the other arm. I began the tale --my mother's picture, the green silk's frame, the scrathing, gnawing, sound in the closet, and the hand ... the ghostly hand ... at the piano, holding the cleaver, the severed finger ...

"Your imagining things! You must be!" Duncan insisted.

Everytime he said that, I began to fear that he will leave me, like my mother and father, but I firmly declared that I wasn't -- that I could scare believe it myself.

When I had finished, there was a silence so long, I feared that my story had put him to sleep. When I looked in his eyes, I saw concern

"At least you are safe now," he said.

"You don't believe me."

"I believe you think you saw what you said."

"Yet you truly believe I didn't see it at all!" I retorted.

"It's too bizarre to be believed!"

"You think I'm mad then?"

"No. Confused, perhaps."

"You think I am crazy! We were locked in the root cellar, Duncan. You saw it yourself. Clearly we didn't lock ourselves in and we can't do it now."

"Your not crazy princess. Perhaps, Justin is the one who did it," he said. Then taking my hands, he said, "I'll tell no one, Princess, for I really don't care. Crazy or not, you are the one I love."

He took me in his arms, and I lay against his chest, his ribs against my ribs, his chest against mine, our lips exchanging the sweetest taste, the lightest touch, the most ardent protestations of love, so that my entire body tingled and warmed to the thought of taking him to my room.

As I turned to kiss the side of his neck, I saw a slight movement across the room, and looked up to see the hand of Izzy Green walking across the top of the piano.

I gasped and pointed. Duncan Carey sat up and stared.

The hand walked along the rim of the music holder and down onto the keys. Then, the pinkie dragging still, they began their slow dance:  
'Too roo de nay, too roo de noo,  
Too roo de nay, too roo de noo ..."

LAST CHAPTER TOMARROW!!! THANKS FOR ALL THE GET WELL WISHES! I CRIED INSIDE WHEN I READ THEM! READ AND REVIEW! I WILL START UPDATING TOTAL DIGIMON ISLAND TOMARROW HOPEFULLY. 


	21. Chapter 21

I DO NOT OWN TDI OR JADE GREEN

When Trent returned, he declared that Justin would no longer be welcome in the house. Indeed, until he apologized and set things right, he should not be admitted at all. Having divided the property in his will into three portions, Trent said he was prepared to go back to Charleston if necessary and divide it into portions only.

Such talk only made Gwen and me all the more anxious, and we had worries enought as it was. If Justin was cut out of the will completely, what might he do to us? The question I couldn't answer in my heart was who had set the fire. Did Izzy Green locked us in the root cellar to protect us from Justin or to make us the victims of a fire? If the gardener had not noticed the flames, and Chef breaking the door down, would the hand returned to let us out? Gwen and I had already agreed between us that we wouldn't tell Trent about the hand and upset him further. So one moment I worried about the hand, the next I found myself lost in a daydream of Duncan and his warm embrace, and the next I worried about Justin's returned, whether he would come again in the night; be waiting for me behind a closed door.

While I was wondering all of these things, the window opened and Duncan came in. "Princess, fancy meeting you here!" he exclaimed.

"This is my room," I replied as he came over.

He smirked at me while he sat down next to me.

I turned my head to look at him, "There has to be a reason why you are here?"

He feigned shock, "Can't I see how my princess is doing?" He didn't look at me through.

I rolled my eyes when I remember something, "Gwen and Trent are engaged."

He still didn't turn his head to look at me when he said, "Wow! How did Justin react?"

"He doesn't know. They will tell him when it's too late. What are you hiding from me?"

"I'm not hiding anything. What makes you think that princess?"

"You haven 't told me how you got the bruise and your not acting like yourself."

I'm guessing that Duncan heard the worriness in my voice for he finally looked at me, "I got in a fight, what more do you want?"

"I want to know how."

"Why?"

"Never mind," I said as I stood up. "I will find someone who will tell me."

He got up behind me, picked me up, and then sit down on my bed with me in his lap, "I don't want you to worry Princess."

I put my hand on his bruise and lightly rubbed it while saying, "How can I not worry?"

He closed his eyes, and I could hear him purr. I stopped and he opened his eyes which were full of sadness. "Why did you stop?"

"You were sounding like a cat."

He blushed at that statement before he asked, "An alley cat or a house cat?"

"A kitten."

He took a deep sigh, "I don't want you to get hurt. That's why I won't tell you."

I looked into his eyes, "You better get going."

"Why? I don't have nothing planned," he asked surprise.

"It's getting late and I don't want you to get hurt again."

"Princess ..." I noticed that his bruise had gone down a lot.

I tried to get out of his gasp but he just pulled me tighter to him. "What did I do wrong and who put that lock on your window?"

"What lock? You broke it off."

"Well, you have a new lock on it."

I looked at my window and I did notice a new lock on my window. "Strange, I didn't tell no one."

Duncan got himself repostion which also made him repostion me. I was underneath him while he was on top of me. He got off of me and went to the window. He left before I could say goodbye.

Rumor went about that it was Justin who had locked us in the root cellar and set the house up in flames, which did a lot of harm to his already damaged reputation. Katie even reported that he had drunkenly tried to embrace her one afternoon when she passed him on the street. He would have succeed if Sadie didn't do her kung-fu/judo moves on him.

It broke my heart to see the pain this causde my uncle, but when he spoke of going to Charleston to remove Justin's name from his will completely, I dissuaded him, reminding him that he was a prodigal son has returned home all the better for his experience.

So, after the workmen had come and gone. and the kitchen of the Sparrow house was in order once more, the tree of us -- Trent, Gwen, and me --- tried to settle down to an ordinary life; as ordinary as a life can be with Izzy Green about. Autumn was upon us, and days were spent at the hot shop helping women select their fall bonnets; evening found me playing the piano for Trent, engage in a game of checkers, or reading outloud to Gwen as she did her embroidery work in the parlor. When I could. I met Duncan at the back of the garden, or we kissed in the wagon ridding home. He was quiet as to the hand, however, more solemn that I had ever seen him.

"I can't explain it," he said to me, "but I know what we saw. You didn't imagine it Princess, I was mistaken. However, if people think we are crazy then we will by shut away together."

Gwen, however, was clearly upset, I knew what she was thinking when the breeze suddenly blew a curtain, or a paper slid from a chair across the floor. Any slight movement anywhere in the room made her turn quickly, and I noticed she was most careful to where she put her feet. We kept our fears from Trent, however, he had Justin on his mind, and that was enough.

A fortnight after the fire, my uncle stood at the window after dinner, gazing upward at the sky. "It's hurricane weather," he told me, "and the fishermen say it's a hurricane sky."

I had never been through a hurrican, of course, and found such talk full of adventure, but Gwen didn't share my excitement. "I have lived through several in my time, and would not like to go through one again," she said.

There was much talk in town of the coming storm, if indeed the fishermen were right, but it seemed so distant. The women of Whispers, in fact, were thinking ahead to Christmas, ordering their holiday bonnets. I frequently went to the window of the hat shop and glanced at the sky, not this time however.

"Oh, I wouldn't pay it much mind," Leshawan said while trying on a brown and yellow hat she had just made for a grand lady, Beth, in Savannah, who would have none other then Katie's Hat Shoppe make all her fine bonnets and send them down by carriage. "There's always talk, talk, talk, during the hurrican season, but one rarely strikes."

"I'm not looking at that today. Come here and take a look."

Outside the window was Duncan and the dude wearing the white cap was outside, dodging the attacks of Chirs and Justin.

Leshawna came up behind me and exclaimed, "WHAT THE HELL?! WHAT DID DJ DO TO MAKE THEM MAD?"

"You know the white cap dude?"

"Duh, he's my boyfriend. The one I told you about."

"Oh. What reason do you think they have of attacking Duncan and Dj?"

"Chirs and Justin are drunk and usually they are -- OW! That must hurt --- violent." Leshawna stated.

Duncan got hit in the stomach by Justin while Dj grabbed a bat out of no where and hit Chris up side the head.

I flinched when Justin hit Duncan and Leshawna noticed, "What's wrong girl?"

"Duncan has a bruise on his face and he won't tell how he got it."

"Now you know girl. You know how to fight?"

"Had to," I took a sigh. "Promise me you won't tell no one and you won't see me as my mother."

"I promise."

"My mother was a madwoman and they locked her up before she died. So I had to learn how to figth to survive."

"Girl, your secret is safe with me. Any thing else?"

"I am able to shoot a bow and arrow with ease and accuracy," I replied.

"Girl, you could not have another talent that is more suited for here."

Leshawna walked over to the cashier, grabbed a bow and arrow, "Follow me."

She lead me to the backroom and up the stairs I didn't notice until now. "The orginal builder of this house was a minutemen in WWI. His wife didn't like the idea so he made this area up here to shoot the British without being noticed."

"So, I can shoot the bow and arrow without getting caught?"

"Exactly. When Katie first brought this shop, her stupid crazy stalker, Cody kept annoying her. So Katie shot him in the foot and he never bugged her again."

"That's why she has the bow and arrow."

"Yep."

She handed me the bow and arrow and I went to the window. Put two arrows in the bow and shoot them at Chris and Justin. Both of the arrows hit their targets foot.

"Nice shot!" Leshawna said as she high-fived me.

Riding home in Duncan's wagon as he made is deliveries, I listened to him tell how the sea turned up in a storm, waves eighteen feet high. "It's the land farther up that gets it most," he said. "Especially Cape Hatteras in North Carolina, which stretches out into the sea."

I wasn't thinking of the sea just then, I was thinking of Duncan's back, his shoulders two round swells that rippled and rolled beneath his shirt, and I thought if I could but have Duncan to protect me always, what harm could possibly befalll me?

"Oh, Duncan. If I were you, I wouldn't eat much today. Not with the punch to the stomach you had gotten today," I said as I hopped off the wagon and walked inside.

It was the night when the fears unloosed themselves and roamed about within my mind. For as Justin was without the hosue, plotting against those who were within, and the hand, the ghostly hand, was hiding who knew where, how could I think of furture happiness?

There were even times, God please forgive me, in the darkest night when my wakefulness unleashed every fear within the human heart, and I trusted no one. Was it not possible, my mad mind would venture, that my uncle didn't go to Charleston at all, but was himself responisble for the hand, just to frighten me and drive me to the same fate my mother had suffered? Or that Gwen and Justin were in a plot together, and although it appeared he stolen our earnings, hers and mine, in truth they that had merely made it appear so, and would split my portion between them? Even, Duncan, at times, seemed suspect. What of, in spite of all his protestations, he was responsible for the hand, and after Gwen and I had returned to the root cellar, it was he himself who had locked the door?

Of course, none of this made sense, why would my uncle or Gwen, or Duncan wish me harm? Then I would be rocked by the worst fear of all, that everything I thought had happened had, in truth, not happen at all, and that only by the kindness of others was this lunatic girl allowed to live in Whispers, protected by her uncle and his cook.

"Ugh!" a voice said from outside my window.

I went over it and saw Duncan grabbing onto his stomach. I opened the window and let him come in. "You didn't take my advice did you?"

He climbed in and nodded his head yes. I lead him over to my bed and helped him sit down. "How... how did you know that I gained a punch in the stomach?"

I rolled my eyes, "Leshawna and I saw it. If you plan on getting into fights, don't let them happen in front of Katie's Hat Shoppe. Want me to get you a cold towel?" I asked.

"Sure and you saw it?"

"Stop asking question until I come back," I replied.

When I came back he was asleep on my bed. I put the towel on his forehead and I went down to the parlor. I softly played some songs.

"Courtney why are up?" Trent asked as he and Gwen came down.

"I'm sorry but I can't sleep. Sometimes, if I play the piano I will get tired easily."

"Oh, okay," Trent said as he started back up with Gwen behind him.

I started playing ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY and sang along with it. When I got done I heard someone clapping behind me. "I don't think I can talk you into doing it again, can I princess?"

"Nope," I said as I turned around and stand up. "How are you feeling?"

"Sick. How much did you see?"

"Leshawna and both saw you get punched in the stomach and Dj hit Chris."

"So, how did those arrows come out of no where?" He asked after he picked me (bridal style)

"Nope!"

"Princess, you said that too fast. Your lying. Now tell." He said as he carried me up to my room.

"Are you sure you should be doing this? You didn't take my advice and you are feeling sick."

"Princess, you should be asleep but your still up taking care of me. I'm sure your arm is feeling kind of sore."

"Why would my arm hurt?" I asked.

My arm is used to the pain by shooting a bow and arrow.

"If I didn't know any better, you was the one who shot the bow and arrow. In fact, I know you was the one who did shoot it." he smirked.

I opened his mouth but he said, "Geoff told me you had a talent for bows and arrows."

"It was the only thing that my mother and I had in common." I replied.

He kissed me on the forehead, "Goodnight Princess. I'm sorry that I didn't say goodnight to you the other night. Can you ever forgive me?"

"I can but how are you going to get home with your stomach?"

"I walk and I lied to you. I did take your advice, I just wanted to see what you would do. You did more then what I thought you would."

With that he climbed out the window.

In the mornings, however, with the autumn sun shining through my window, my worries seemed so unreasonable that I faced the day with new confidence, eager to drink my morning tea with Gwen, to chatter about the events that had happen yesterday with Leshawna at lunchtime, and ride home, if I was lucky, with Duncan.

This particular Saturday I awoke to such a wind that all the shutters on the Sparrow house rattled and shook.

"It's a blow, all right!" Gwen told me. "You won't be going to the hat shop today, my dead. In fact, Katie and Sadie stopped by to say that all the shops were closed."

Trent didn't go to his place of business, either, but put on his mackintosh and boots and walked down the street to the barbershop where the men had gathered, to determine the course of the storm. It was generally predicted that the hurricane, although close, would largely pass us by.

By two o'clock, there was a sudden shift in the wind, and it was evident that the storm was bearing down upon us. Whether the m ajor damage would be here or elsewhere was of little consequence, for what could be seen with the naked eye was frightening enough.

Trent came back from the barbershop instruction us to close the shutters. He regretted that he didn't buy special shutters made to cover the stained glass windows as wll as the door. When Duncan came by to see if help was needed, Trent sent him off at once to fetch wood planks to secure over the stained glass.

Gwen and I was told to pack up the most valuable breakables and Trent would drive us inland to Gwen and her suitcase, however, there was scarcely room for Trent, much less for me.

"We will leave some of the valuables behind, Courtney," he said. "We will not go off without you."

"I will come if Duncan, if he doesn't mind?"

"I don't mind at all," Duncan said.

"I can help him nail the wood over the windows, Trent. Do go on and be quick!"

Trent started to protest, but Duncan cut in: "I will have her on the way within an hour. My wagon is sturdy, and I know the road to White Hall."

When Trent made to unload his carriage further so that I might ride, I said, "Think of your beautiful stained glass windows, Trent! It takes two to board them up -- one to hammer and one to hold the wood steady. There is no one else to help -- everyone is taking care of their property."

"Promise me you will deliever her safely," Trent said, grasping Duncan's arm, which in truth, was more sturdy then his own.

"You have my word," Duncan said.

So Trent and Gwen departed, the horse splashing through water that was already rushing down the street, and Duncan and I set to workin nailing the boards over the red and green glass that adorned ech window overlooking the front porch. The wind was howling so hard, we could barely hear our own voices, and the rain blew sideways, almost knocking me off my feet. ALMOST.

When we was nailing the last panel, Duncan yelled, "I can finish this myself, Princess. Go pack your bag and be sure that the house is locked up. We must be on your way before the water gets higher."

Hurrying to my room, I heard the door close and thought it was the wind. I pulled out my smallest pack and in it I placed my shawl and linens, my stockings and brush.

There were footsteps on the stairs, and I thought it was Duncan but when I turned around, I chocked back a cry as I saw my cousin advancing toward me, with a lecherous look that I had seen on him.

With a scream, I dashed towards my bed and noticed that my window was locked. Justin turned around and locked the door.

"Get out!" I said, noting his drunken stare, yet my eyes were riverted on him, for they are not the eyes of a man in a stupor so much as a man driven by lust and rage. Indeed, as I challenged him, he merely laughed, and was already taking his shirt off.

I flung across the bed to reach the other side and yanking open the drawer of my bedside table, retieved the knife I had once hidden there.

As I stood, the knife raised, it seemed only to excite him more, and he laughed evilly as he approached in a half circle, hands out in front of him like a wrestler.

"If you touch me, Justin, this knife will stab you!" I told him, but his eyes only glowed with the challenge.

"That's wht she said, only she had a cleaver," he laughed.

"Izzy Green?" I gasped, thinking of her hiding on the attic stairs, thinking about poor Owen. Not for a moment did I take my eyes off of Justin, or my hand from the knife. With the other hand, I tried to unlock the window, in hopes of escaping that way if there were no other.

"What I asked of her was so little," Justin went on. "The same I asked of you. A kiss. Only you wouldn't give it to me, would you? So I think I will take that kiss now, Orphan, and maybe more."

"Don't you dare!" I cried out. "Duncan is here! He will come and if he doesn't, I know exactly where to step."

"He would have to break in first, for I have locked all the doors," Justin said, with that, he lunged for me, grabbing my wrist and forcing me down onto the bed.

Again I screamed, but he pressed one hand over my mouth. Desperately I held on to the knife, though my strength was no match for his, I kicked his foot where my arrow hit.

That only led him to press me down harder, "Don't be stupid Orphan," he said, his whiskey breath in my face. "You knife me and I'll do the same to you I did to Izzy. You will stab yourself with your own hand, only I will be leading it towards your heart."

With that he was upon me, pinning my arms to the bed and forcing the knife from my fingers.

Was it over, then? I wondered. By the time Duncan broke in, if he does, would I be ravished, losing not only my honor but possibly my life?

And then I saw it ... the hand. It was climbing swiftly up the bedpost noa and onto my pillow. Justin pressed me down with one knee in my stomach as he began to unfasten his pants, then startled suddenly as he glimpsed the hand.

He let out a cry, reeling backward as it leaped from my pillow and grasped his throat. For some reason, I went over to the hand and asked, "Do you want me to tell Owen what happen?"

"Izzy would like that," a voice said from behind me.

A beautiful girl with red frizzy hair, and a green dress showed up behind me.

"Izzy is sorry for scaring you and Gwen but ..."

She was cut off short when Duncan was pounding on the front door. "Princess! COURTNEY!"

In shock, I went downstairs and opened it and pulled Duncan inside, speaking incoherently.

He clutched my shoulders. "What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you lock the front door? We have to leave now!"

He picked me and carried me over to the wagon, I looked behind and me saw the hand going into the swirling water and disappeared.

Forever.

Read and Review. This is the last chapter (T_T) Now I will work on Total Digimon Island. XD 


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